interior designer on harrah's northern california casino

“He said we have to design with a punchline,” Friedmutter recalls. Friedmutter says Conversano carried a small satchel “a magic bag, like he was on Let’s Make A Deal, and he would pull out something appropriate” for the situation. Conversano would be spague enough to tease out their views and then with “a little squint and little twinkle in his eye” seize on them. “Henry was a master of reading people in the room during meetings,” Friedmutter says. “There was natural chemistry,” Friedmutter, who, like Steelman, later worked with Wynn’s design team, then founded Friedmutter Group in 1992, says. “When I would discuss something with Steve Wynn, in his voice, I would hear Henry in what he taught Steve and many others,” Steelman, whose rule breaking design at Sands Macao enabled the global gaming capital’s stratospheric rise, says.ĭuring that period, through a friend’s husband, architect Brad Friedmutter met Conversano, and learned they both grew up in Flushing, Queens. Opened in 1980, Golden Nugget Atlantic City became the town’s most successful casino, and Conversano entered Wynn’s design inner circle. “Henry believed that the Golden Nugget should live within the flamboyant beach context of a bygone era but be updated, modern, clever and theatrical,” Steelman says. Cornucopia Restaurant at Golden Nugget Atlantic City Provided by Paul Steelman

Interior designer on harrah's northern california casino