Hidden Tributes in T-Mobile Arena

It's one of the most unique looking facilities in sports.
T-Mobile Arena, the home of Las Vegas's NHL team, doesn't have an exterior that looks like anything else in hockey.
A towering glass façade, with sweeping balconies and a giant mesh video screen on the east side. To the west, T-Mobile Arena maintains a distinct, deep shade of copper that emerges from the horizon when approaching the Las Vegas Strip from either Highway 15 or Tropicana Avenue.
Did you know that both of these unmistakable looks were incorporated into T-Mobile Arena's design as a special tribute to Las Vegas culture?

What The East Side Represents
The east side of T-Mobile Arena, with its state-of-the-art video screen, bright colors and loud messaging, faces the Las Vegas Strip. And by design, it reflects the Las Vegas Strip. (Pictured Below: The east side of the arena the day T-Mobile Arena opened)
After all, what screams bright colors and loud messaging more than the Las Vegas Strip? T-Mobile Arena seeks to fit into that aesthetic, while not obscuring it.
The designers of T-Mobile Arena went to such lengths to complement, but not obscure The Strip that they designed its mesh video screen to strictly be one-way - when you approach the arena from The Park or Toshiba Plaza, you see video; the screen "disappears" when looking through it from the inside of the arena, maintaining views of The Park, Monte Carlo and the New York-New York Hotel and Casino. (Pictured Below: What T-Mobile Arena's video board looks like from inside the arena)

What The West Side Represents

As colorful and bright as the Las Vegas Strip is, the areas surrounding the city are just as distinct, albeit in a more subtle - but not less beautiful - manner.
Facing away from T-Mobile Arena on its west side begins the area's vast desert, with the Spring Mountains ever-visible in the distance.
When the design firm Populous, which partnered with MGM and AEG in designing T-Mobile Arena, decided on an appearance for the west side of our home arena, they meshed various shades of copper with a futuristic design. This was meant to reflect the area's desert and Spring Mountains. (Pictured Below: The "desert" side of T-Mobile Arena, courtesy of Jerry Gallegos)
These tributes to the Las Vegas area continue on the inside of T-Mobile Arena.
On the lower level of the arena, much of the concourse area echoes the shades of copper and brown on the west side of the arena's exterior - another tribute to the desert.
On the upper level of the arena, the coppers and browns make way for blues, purples and oranges, which were chosen to represent the area's beautiful sunsets.