A Taste Of Idaho… In Foxborough

The Teller isn’t sure how much traction a nouveau riche type like Steve Wynn expects to get in Massachusetts.

Gaudy ostentation doesn’t play well here. Maybe that’s why Wynn last week released a rendering of his proposed “Wynn Foxborough” casino resort, modeled after his own Sun Valley, Idaho home. If it’s good enough for Steve Wynn to live in – it is, after all, built of “local stone and heavy timber,” according to The Boston Globe – then it must be good enough for Foxborough.

Problem is, The Teller can conclude by looking at the drawings of the casino that Wynn’s house itself is indeed gaudy and ostentatious. It’s like a ski chalet, only tarted up with a botox face and other, shall we say, “augmentations.”

The Teller is reminded that a small number of years ago, commercial developers started slapping cupolas on top of every building so they could tell local residents that they, too, were concerned for the aesthetics, character and colonial heritage of the region. That’s why there are cupolas on top of CVS stores. Check it out.

We suppose Wynn could’ve proposed a casino designed to look like an enormous, center-hall, colonial home, but the neighbors might feel as if they were being insulted.

Really, there’s no way for Wynn to make this scale model of his awful house (The Teller can picture the gold-plated balustrades, marble floors and larger-than-life oil paintings of Wynn himself on each wall) seem like it belongs in Foxborough.

Instead, The Teller would like to see a design that is overtly and gleefully gaudy, rather than a failure of surreptitious quaintness or country charm.

The Teller says if Wynn wants to bring Vegas to Foxborough, he ought to actual try to bring Vegas to Foxborough – complete with flashing lights, fountains, showgirls and all the rest of it.