I was going to try to come up with some sort of dad joke-like title for this post (Tower Cranes in Vegas = Jackpot -or- Tower Crane Count in Vegas is Scorching) but I just don't have in me right now. That said, I do have a few cool pix to share, particularly regarding the MSG Sphere, so let's start with that. Before looking at the pix below, keep in mind the following stats that I picked up from this article at casino.com:

• One of the crawler cranes used on this project is the fourth largest ever assembled, taking 18 days to set up.
• The arena will seat 17,500 people.
• The project cost is $1.8 billion and is scheduled to open in 2023.
• The interior screen will be the size of three football fields and is 100 times clearer than the best HD TV you can buy today.

I know I'm going off script with crawler cranes, but these beasts are engineering marvels and were actually to big to adequately capture in a single picture. You should also know that I risked life and limb to get these pictures. A security guard told us we could not take pictures whereby a buddy I was with said "we're standing on a public sidewalk, we'll take all the pictures we want." Please note that previous quote was edited so that i can keep this post family-friendly. Without further ado...

View from the adjacent Venetian parking structure. Not sure which of these was the fourth largest crawler crane, but they are both huge.

These crawler cranes act like mobile luffer tower cranes. I assume they used mobile cranes because the size of the dome necessitated repositioning.

A view of the beast from the bottom. I found it odd that they needed to place the crane tracks on dunnage given the incredibly hard nature of Las Vegas caliche soil (ya, I just went full geotech nerd on you.)

View from the entrance to the Venetian Convention Center. Notice the soon-to-be-completed enclosed elevated walkway to the MSG Sphere that ducks just below the elevated monorail.

Oh yeah, there were also some other tower cranes that were infinitely less cool than these crawlers.

Two luffers at the Venetian. By now it should be completely clear that there is a lot of work going on at/around the Venetian Hotel.

The last crane I saw was this tower crane working on a ho hum renovation project at the Hilton Grand Vacations time share.

While the crowds on the strip were a bit rough (Seriously, who takes little kids there? And who pays to have a picture taken with someone wearing a soiled Spider Man costume? Actually, never mind, I would prefer not to know.), but it has been years even before COVID that I had been down there and I was glad I got to see the MSG Sphere under construction and I'm intrigued to see a show there when it is done.

It has been seven months since my last Sacramento update, so perhaps I should relabel these biannual updates...oh well. Since November, Sacramento is down a tower crane, leaving the overall count to five. I just returned to Seattle, where five seems like a colossal letdown (more on that in a separate forthcoming post), yet five is pretty good for Sacramento, historically speaking. Since November, here are the cranes that were removed from the Sacramento skyline:

• Multifamily at S Street between 16th and 17th Streets (up for what seemed to be a hot minute)
• The AJ, Railyard Boulevard between 6th and 7th Streets, Brown Construction
• CalSTRS second tower at 3rd and E Streets in West Sacramento, DPR Construction (which seemed to be up for several years)

Two new cranes replaced the three above. The details are as follows, moving from north to south:

​Two tower cranes at the Sacramento County Courthouse replacement project, 6th and G Streets. Clark Construction is the general contractor (project info in the link).

New addition to the skyline at 7th and I Streets and looks to be a multifamily project. Tricorp Group is the GC.

 Cathedral Square multifamily project on J Street and 11th Street. DesCor Builders is the GC. For an inside look at this project, click here. The owner for this project is Anthem Properties, which leads us to...

...Another Anthem Properties multifamily project at 15th and S Streets. Brown Construction is the GC.