Roger Thomas (designer)

Early life and education

Thomas was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the 1950s, his father, E. Parry Thomas, was CEO of the Bank of Las Vegas, the only bank willing to loan money to area casinos.

After spending his final two years of high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, Thomas earned a BFA in art history from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in partnership with Tufts University, where he was trained in painting, sculpture, textiles, metalsmithing and ceramics.

Thomas later attended The Interior Design Institute in Newport Beach, CA, where he received his master's degree of Design.

Interior design

In 1974, Thomas began designing interiors for banks and other financial institutions. He spent seven years running the Las Vegas office of design house Yates Silverman, designed penthouses for the Stardust Hotel and Casino, and designed his first casino, the Lady Luck, in a Saturday Night Fever motif. Thomas felt the standard design of the city's casinos had a disorienting, claustrophobic layout lacking décor, and that their designs relied too heavily on fantasy.

In 1980, Steve Wynn, a family friend, asked Thomas to join a team designing the first major ground-up resort in Las Vegas in 25 years, a hotel and casino more sophisticated than others in the city. This would become The Mirage resort and hotel, which opened in 1989. Thomas's work designing the interiors of the tropical-themed Mirage and swashbuckler-themed Treasure Island, which opened in 1993, began to change the image of properties on the Las Vegas Strip from casinos with hotel rooms to luxury resorts.

Beginning with the interior design for the Bellagio hotel, which opened in 1998, Wynn and Thomas "reinvented the look of the modern gambling hall by deliberately violating every previously accepted rule of casino design," helping Wynn's hotels achieve an original, more luxurious approach. The Bellagio immediately became the standard against which subsequent Strip resorts were measured. It was designed to put gamblers at ease, with high ceilings, European-style furnishings and a wide-open, axial, easy-to-navigate layout. The Bellagio would generate the largest profits for a single Las Vegas property in the city's history. At a cost of $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive hotel in the world at the time. It changed the paradigm of casino resort revenue, with room, restaurant and retail revenue surpassing casino revenue.

Thomas designed interiors for the Wynn Las Vegas, which opened in 2005. The resort casino design included changing the aesthetic from a low-ceiling, dimly-lit feel to bring in natural light, adding a garden atrium and pioneering the placement of chandeliers above gambling tables. Thomas has also designed interiors for the Wynn Macau in China, which opened in 2006, the $2.3 billion, 2,000-room Encore at Wynn Las Vegas in 2009, and the Encore at Wynn Macau in 2010. The Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas were both departures from the previous style of Wynn-owned resorts, with an original interior design rather than an overall theme. Thomas has also worked on mass renovations for the casino at the Wynn Macau, which were completed in February 2015, and is currently working on Wynn Palace Cotai, also in Macau, a $3.6 billion resort scheduled to open in February 2016.

Thomas's opulent style is heavily influenced by 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, 18th-century French architecture and interiors, and 20th-century French, Austrian and US modernists. The New Yorker said that "doing the opposite of what is usual has become Thomas's trademark," while Vegas magazine stated "the history of hotel-casino design on the Strip can practically be seen through his creations." He has been named five times to the Architectural Digest AD100 list of the world's preeminent architects and designers, and was inducted into the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame, 2015.

Home furnishings and other designs

The Roger Thomas Collection features luxury home and outdoor furnishings, mirrors, carpets, fabric, wall coverings, lighting and jewelry. Thomas has created signature collections and pieces for brands including Niedermaier, Edward Ferrell + Lewis Mittman, Townsend Leather, Fromental, Maya Romanoff, S. Harris, Samuel & Sons, Sicis Jewels, Boyd Lighting, Koroseal and OW Hospitality. He designed the private homes of Steve Wynn, including his Manhattan duplex, where he focused on enhancements such as a lighting scheme that would suit Wynn's art collection, and custom-made furnishings. He has also designed corporate offices, yachts and aircraft interiors.

Honors and awards

Personal life

Thomas maintains homes in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Marin County, California. He was raised as a Mormon. He has twice been married to women, and came out as gay in 1996, at the age of 44. He has said that coming out improved his work by allowing him to be more authentic. He is married to Arthur Libera, a licensing agent for artists and designers.