According to Las Vegas Sun, the Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences at the CityCenter’s gateway to the Las Vegas Strip designed by Foster & Partners has suddenly been cut down to about half its intended size.

‘It wasn´t because of the economical crisis, but actually due to construction flaws: 15 floors of wrongly installed rebar. This forced the developer to cut down the height -removing the condos portion of the building- resulting on a 28 stories tall building, instead of 49 as planned.

Topping out at 28 stories instead of the proposed 49, the incredible shrinking Harmon seems unfortunately fated to look like a stubby, squashed stepchild next to its soaring CityCenter siblings, the 61-story Aria Resort & Casino and the 57-story Vdara condo-hotel.

MGM Mirage canceled the Harmon’s 207-unit condominium component — the top half of the building — and postponed the opening of the hotel to late 2010.

‘Changes happen, yes, but this is more than a change,’ said David Schwarz, the noted Washington, D.C.-based architect who is designing the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas. ‘I’ve never heard of a building being cut in half before.’

Schwarz says if he were in Foster’s situation, he would ask MGM Mirage to let him redesign the whole thing, which may, in fact, be what’s going on. ‘I would ask Foster, ‘OK, how do you finish this building to make it look good?’ Just cutting the top of it off, that to me is not a viable solution. How you make it look intentional is, I think, the question.’

Read the whole article: www.lasvegassun.com.