Desert Inn

The Desert Inn, also known as the D.I., was a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, which operated from April 24, 1950, to August 28, 2000. Designed by New York architect Jac Lessman, it was the fifth resort to open on the Strip. It was situated between Desert Inn Road and Sands Avenue.

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 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 stands where the hotel once stood.