Water features at Aria

In Vegas, it's very easy to get thirsty - especially during the summer. You'll want to drink water from just about anywhere. But after seeing these water features at Aria, all you'll want to do is stare. 

Created by WET, the design firm responsible for the fountains at Bellagio and The Volcano at Mirage, these water features are another spectacular display on the Strip. 

Once you pull up to Aria's porte-cochère, you'll immediately notice Lumia, a fountain featuring twisting ribbons and large arcs of streaming water. The splashes are in perfect sync, creating bold "water sparks" at their intersections. And here's something you don't see everyday: This is the first fountain ever to display bright neon colors in broad daylight. We're so used to seeing these colors at nighttime, but looking at Lumia during the day feels like your eyes are playing tricks on you. But make sure to check out Lumia at nighttime, too. The hot pink, green, purple and blue colors with the splashing water stand out even more.  

With the resort's mission of being green, the water you see in Lumia is recycled and even has a computerized system that helps control splashing during windy days. 

Just steps away along the outer entrance circle you'll see Focus, an expansive, curved water wall made of highly textured stone. This water wall measures 250 feet long by 24 feet high, making it WET's largest water wall to date. This breathtaking, calming water wall brings a sense of peace as you enter the property. The fountain is programmable and the engineers can control the speed and direction of the water. 

If you're entering from the casino side, you'll see Latisse, a series of two-story-high walls composed purely of thick, textured glass. Watching the water flow down the backside of the glass hints how it would it feels like to walk under a rippling waterfall. 

Can't get enough of these water features? Just next door inside the Crystals shopping mall, you'll get to see even more. Located near the two-story Louis Vuitton stands Glacia, a feature that includes large pillars of carved ice, with the tallest one standing at 15 feet. When these columns rise from a control room below, they are carved into a different pattern. This means the feature will never look the same twice. Colored lighting, along with music created by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, add to the experience. 

And just a few steps away, you'll get to run through a maze of water - all without getting wet. Halo is a collection of clear tubes spinning vortices of water. There are a total of 20 tubes, along with 30 windows below so you can see the water from underneath. Glacia and Halo can be seen during mall hours (10 a.m. - midnight).

All this talk about creative water features at Aria and Crystals leaves us thirsty for more. 

-- Staff Report