By Tina Alvey
Since a Lewisburg man now owns The Greenbrier, it seems only fitting that a Lewisburg native is designing the resort’s new underground casino.
Michael Oliver McClung, an architect with Shope Reno Wharton in South Norwalk, Conn., says he keeps up with the news from his hometown, and in this instance, that provided a professional advantage.
“We knew the project was proposed before the rest of the architects in the world heard about it,” notes McClung, a graduate of Greenbrier East High School and the Virginia Tech College of Architecture.
“I knew immediately that was just something I wanted to be involved with,” he says. “I have a lot invested in the area psychologically and emotionally.”
Upon learning about the proposed casino, McClung began to send information on his firm and its impressive body of work to Jim Justice, who purchased the resort from CSX Corp. earlier this year for just over $20 million. Justice received the unsolicited data from Shope Reno Wharton “politely,” McClung says.
“The folks we were competing against for this project did casinos all the time,” he explains. “I think part of the reason Mr. Justice chose us was because we don’t do casinos all the time.”
Justice has been quite open about his intention to ensure The Greenbrier’s casino is not garish and out of character with the historic resort.
“He liked the fact that we understood the architectural heritage of The Greenbrier,” McClung says. “He wanted something very elegant that flowed from the existing architecture.”
Shope Reno Wharton is known not only for its high-end homes, but also for a number of commercial projects, such as libraries, museums and golf clubhouses. The firm has won the Architectural Digest 100 Award, given to the top 100 architects and designers in the world, a record seven times.
McClung is busy now developing schematics for the casino. While he declines to address project deadlines, he readily acknowledges a certain amount of pressure to keep the casino on the front burner.
“(Justice) is committed to getting this done expeditiously,” he points out. “Jim has a very bright vision for The Greenbrier. It is exciting to be a part of it.”
— E-mail: talvey@register-herald.com
