This is the Empathy Suite and, if its mere sight has made you feel like someone has encrusted your entire skull with diamonds, there is a reason for that: It’s been designed by Damien Hirst.
Hirst–the United Kingdom’s richest artist and the world’s kitschest provocateur this side of Jeff Koons–lives up to his reputation in this design, part of a $690 million renovation plan of the Palms, the legendary casino in Las Vegas. The 9,000-square-foot two-story sky villa sits on top of the Palms and includes “many original pieces” by Hirst, according to the hotel’s press release. The release also claims that the suite is the first and only of “its kind featuring a collection of contemporary art at this scale.”
Hirst worked with architectural firm Bentel & Bentel to design the villa, which includes a cantilevered swimming pool that overlooks Sin City.
The British artist not only featured six of his original artworks (including two sharks swimming in formaldehyde, his specialty). He also created custom furniture and fabrics full of his trademark fetishes: butterflies, spinning designs, and pharmacy motifs all over the place. The space also has its own bar with 13 seats full of used medical objects with two vitrines at its center holding a marlin skeleton and a taxidermy marlin.
Once you have shared your tequila with the marlins and added your own medical drug waste to the bar, you will be able to sleep it off in one of the California king beds at the center of the villa’s two master bedrooms. Or try the private healing salt room, the two massage rooms, fitness room, or just pass out on the terrace.
Alternatively, you and your 52 guests (the maximum capacity, according to the hotel) will be able to hang out in either the lounge or the media theater. There is also a nine-seat dining room.
Sounds like a plan? Damn right it does. You can call the hotel email luxurysales@stationcasinos.com if you have $200,000 ready for a two-night stay, or a $1 million high-roller casino credit line. And no, what happens in Vegas can’t stay in Vegas this time. If you stay here, you really have to Instagram the hell out of it.
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