The Challenge:
Inspired by the rich history of the Tachi-Yokut Tribe and its strong connection to ancestral lands, the expanded and fully renovated Tachi Palace Casino Resort completely transforms the guest experience by promoting the movement of patrons through high-energy open gaming spaces while also making connections to the natural beauty of the Southern California landscape.
Before beginning the design process, the architects from the Cuningham Group worked closely with the owners to deeply understand the geography of the region and the tribe’s traditional land uses. Through these exploratory sessions, it was revealed that, among other natural features, a lake on the resort property was gradually lost over time due to nearby heavy farming and unsustainable land-use practices. Today, water is found primarily in the many sloughs that run through the land.
The challenge was to reflect the geometry and textures of the tribe’s land in every element of the final design – from the initial ceiling concepts to the material specifications. Beyond serving as ornamental evocations of the surrounding landscape and evoking the dynamic feeling of walking through nature, the ceiling elements would also be functionally necessary to create winding pathways for improving traffic flow throughout spacious gaming areas and floor levels while creating a unique guest experience within.
The Solution:
With a precisely articulated geometric form to provide direction, and verticality to achieve connectivity between levels, the design concepts featured a dominant linear white oak slatted ceiling for enriching the spacious interior with warmth and natural texture while allowing guests to see deeper into the space. One of the central components of the design mimics the property’s many snaking sloughs to honor the lost water on the tribal land. To accentuate that perspective and enhance wayfinding, the architects included the captivating wood ceiling panels between sweeping soffits to create eye-catching pathways to lead guests into other spaces they may not have realized existed. Just like the sunlight reflects off surfaces differently, they wanted iridescent metal finishes on the column covers to recreate the same shifting lighting effects as one walks through nature, which would also reinforce verticality.
In bringing their design concepts to life on the first and third levels of the resort’s 60,000 SF expanded space and existing 80,000 SF casino, the architects relied on 27,500 SF of WOODWORKS ACGI Grille solid wood panels with custom 1" × 2" white oak blades, 55,000 SF of black Calla® smooth mineral fiber acoustical panels, 100 SoundScapes® custom linear acoustical panels for a food court, and a mix of pre-engineered Móz decorative column covers with a light champagne finish.
For creating the desired cohesive aesthetic with visually smooth surfaces, Western Building Materials installed the WOODWORKS ACGI Grille wood ceiling across five different elevations throughout the expanded and renovated spaces. Work got underway with the ceiling contractor establishing the line of the black heavy-duty suspension system based on detailed shop drawings, while other trades aligned electrical systems and installed mechanical components. Everything was then blacked out to allow the WOODWORKS grille slats to be the predominant visual.
“We started the slatted ceiling in complete built-out mockup areas for pre-coordination and quality control, and then we moved to laying out large spans that would be the dominant and fluid visual,” says Chris Regalado, project manager. “With benchmarks, we then built out from either side while maintaining consistent narrow reveals.” Working at heights up to 46 feet, installers secured the panels into the grid with black-matte fasteners through the black backer. This allowed everything to disappear and produced a ceiling as flat as the grid holding it.
The large scale, fast-paced schedule, high elevations, continuously changing angles, and precision layouts were the most challenging aspects of this project. “We were constantly taking laser measurements up, down, and across the spaces to execute multiple ceiling elevation changes and precisely integrate hundreds of lights, speakers, and security cameras,” Regalado explains. “The complex curvatures of the soffits also required all the wood panels to be perfectly mitered and aligned while maintaining consistent reveals.”
“From casino management to tribal leaders, the owners were extremely pleased with how the elaborate and fluid design of the finished ceiling captured the movement and natural splendor of the surrounding landscape,” says Elena Gonova, lead interior designer at Cuningham Group Architecture. “The project team’s preconstruction planning, ongoing coordination, and enthusiastic collaboration throughout the installation were key to how everything came together in an intriguing and beautiful way.”
Project: Tachi Palace Casino Resort
Location: Lemoore, CA
Architect: Cuningham Group
Products:
WOODWORKS ACGI Grille
CALLA black ceiling panels
Móz decorative column covers