Why I Love America: Putting the “Wretched” into “Wretched Excess!”

I got back from a business meeting in Las Vegas last night. The meeting ended at 4:00PM, but our flight out wasn’t until 8:00, so we had a bit of time to kill. Having nothing better to do (and I don’t gamble) my associate and I decided to wander the strip, checking out the architecture of the different casinos, and, of course, the architecture of some of the pedestrian traffic as well. (Rrrrowwr!)

One of the casinos we visited was the Bellagio. Lots of interesting stuff to see, intricate detail work, marble mosaics, ceiling freizes, etc., but the thing that stopped me in my tracks was the Bellagio’s Chocolate Fountain. Here’s just a (metaphorical) taste:

Designed by award-winning Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Philippe Maury and Norwood and Antonia Oliver Design Associates, Inc., the fountain took a year and a half in planning and design. The result is a genius work of kinetic sculpture and a daring feat of engineering. Standing 27-feet tall, the masterpiece circulates more than 2,100 pounds of melted dark, milk and white chocolate at a rate of 120 quarts per minute.

I’m an industrial engineering type. I had to think about what my response would be if someone came to me and said “I need a system that will circulate three different types of heated liquid chocolate, with a net weight of 2,100 lbs, over a total vertical head of 27 feet at a rate of 120 quarts per minute, and it has to run 24/7/365.”

Here’s a picture of the fountain, at least the top 14 feet the visitors get to see:

Only in America!