 The Desert Inn opened with 300 rooms and the Sky Room restaurant, headed by a chef formerly of the Ritz Paris, which once had the highest vantage point on the Las Vegas Strip. The casino, at 2,400 square feet (220 m2), was one of the largest in Nevada at the time. The 9-storey St. Andrews Tower was completed during the first renovation in 1963, and the 14-storey Augusta Tower became the Desert Inn's main tower when it was completed in 1978 along with the seven-story Wimbledon Tower. The Palms Tower was completed in 1997 with the second and final renovation. The Desert Inn was the first hotel in Las Vegas to feature a fountain at the entrance. In 1997, the Desert Inn underwent a $ 200 million renovation and expansion, but after it was purchased for $ 270 million by Steve Wynn in 2000, he decided to demolish it and build a new hotel and resort. The remaining towers of the Desert Inn were imploded in 2004. Today, the Wynn and Encore stands where the hotel once stood.
