Reno looks like Vegas at new club/lounge 210 North.

“Carpe noctem quam minimem credula postero.”

So reads a circular neon halo suspended above the heads of patrons entering nightclub/ultra-lounge 210 North. Translated from Latin, it means “Seize the night, put no faith in tomorrow.” Co-owners Rob Stone and Jill Gianolli did just that: Defiantly crafting a world-class nightlife experience not in Las Vegas, but in neighboring Reno, Nev.

“We were really going after a European feel,” says Stone. “We wanted a true nightclub with a touch of fine furniture, fine finishing, outstanding lights and sound, but bringing it all together and really embracing bottle service, which has been big in Vegas and Miami. We felt the opportunity was there for that [in Reno].”

210 North – located on 210 North Sierra Street, natch – wastes no time immersing the clubgoer in its postmodern lushness, introducing two central design elements at the entryway escalators. Color-changing cylindrical lampshades – created by Moonshade Lamps and lit internally by individual Alkalite Octopod 30 LED pods (distributed in the U.S. by Elation Professional) – hang in varying lengths from the stretched vinyl ceiling. There are more than 200 throughout 210, clumped in five circular pods, which handily delineate space within the club’s 17,500 square feet.

Delicate but tough metal chains also make their first appearance here, hanging from either side of the escalators, and downlit by six Alkalite Trackpod-81 LED color mixing systems. These fixtures provide for the sort of aesthetic shock-and-awe tactics lighting installer Richard Rutherford of Rutherford Designs refers to as “architainment.”

“It makes for a completely immersive environment when you’re going up the escalator,” says Rutherford. “And when it changes colors, I mean, you just about duck. It’s really, really saturated.”

All of the non-dancefloor lighting is controlled by the management, via the user-friendly Elation Show Designer 2CF.

Boom Room
Once up the escalator, patrons can do an about-face to enter the Divinity Lounge; or, go to either side of the frosted glass wall in front of them, to the 900-square-foot main dancefloor. The floor announces itself through four Dynacord Alpha Series Alpha Concept X-1/90 speakers hanging from the ceiling, and six Alpha Concept B3 subs bundled to the side, all powered by eight Electro-Voice/Dynacord P Series amps. According to David Sullivan, from Club World Award-winning design/installation firm Infinite Audio (goinfinite.com), these speakers were fundamental to the club’s success, and factored into the installation early on.

“The Alpha sounds good wherever we put it. It’s probably one of the best club boxes there is, period,” says Sullivan, who has installed Dynacord systems in Pacha New York, Rain Las Vegas and other superclubs nationwide. “By putting that box into 210 North, Jill and Rob elevated a club in Reno to worldwide status.”

Digital processing for all the club’s speakers, including fills scattered throughout the club’s VIP areas, bathrooms and hallways, is handled by the Biamp Systems Audiaflex CM, a system used routinely by Infinite. Over time, Gianolli and Stone intend to incorporate gaming into 210, so being able to control volume in the club’s eight different sections was imperative.

“Our main goal is to keep the speakers alive and functioning, and to give control to the owners as far as different levels of the rooms,” says Sullivan. “The Biamp allows us to do that. It’s a very flexible system.”

Metal-framed beds are for upscale bottle service.

Glam Slam
Once off the dancefloor, patrons can relax in one of several VIP spaces, designed and outfitted by Charles Doell of San Francisco-based Mr. Important Design (misterimportant.com), a Club World Award nominee back in ’05 for Cali club Blush. Metal-framed lounge beds off to one side of the bar are draped by metal chains, while raised VIP platforms use geometric wall sections as borders. A backlit, sandblasted mirror is repeated throughout these sections, although the furniture varies from sleek, black patent leather sofas from the here-and-now; to ’60s-style chairs that evoke a retro-swank without being enslaved by it.

“It’s really just a combination [of elements],” says Doell. “It’s not a theme. You’re not walking in there going, ‘Oh, I get it. This is like Rat Pack,’ or ‘This is Supper Club.’”

The dancefloor bars also provide their fair share of eye candy, thanks to a combination of lighting, design and last minute video augmentation. “I always like to do big displays of alcohol, because that’s what you’re there for,” declares Doell. So, for one bar, he created four vertical drink racks 10 feet in length, positioning mirrors over the tops of each to exaggerate their size. The interior of the racks are illuminated by color-sleeved T5 fluorescent rods, while the bar is underlit by 24-lamp-per-foot amber LEDs.

The 5/8-inch laminated glass behind the second bar stretches 30' x 9', and is treated with an opaque film to provide a surface for the room’s video element. Jordan Nugent, the club’s resident light/video jockey, controls two ViewSonic LCD projectors using a Korg Kaoss Pad and a Mac G5 running the Numark Arkaos NuVJ video mixing suite. The club permanently installed the video system itself, and couldn’t be happier.

“[Jeremy’s] able to play with the images to make them go with the music, and he has a Kaoss Pad as well, so he gets really creative. I think we’re scratching the [surface] of what he’s capable of,” says Stone. “It adds so much to the room that we plan on adding more projection, because right now, it’s just on one side.” Nugent also controls the club’s dancefloor lighting, a collection of Elation Power Wash and Spot 250 moving heads.

Take It Outside
The Divinity Lounge – hyped as a separate entity on the 210 website – proudly displays the Wave Chandelier, the club’s defining visual centerpiece. Designed and created by London-based designer Eva Menz, this subtly undulating sculpture utilized 5,000 pieces of crystal affixed onto the ends of rods and suspended from the ceiling over the bar. The sculpture is lit by four Elation Vision Color 250 color changers, used by Rutherford in great number throughout the club for their impressive CMY mixing capabilities and gobo wheels.

The sound is considerably scaled back here, with Yamaha IF-series speakers complementing the chilled downtempo music usually programmed for the room. Doell continued with his time-travel design approach, combining ’60s-style wingback chairs with sleek laser-cut tables from L.A.-based design firm Orange22 (orange22.com).

Even after all of this, Stone insists that he and Gianolli are not done by a long shot. In addition to future gaming additions, he also points to a structurally sound outdoor balcony area overlooking the street, which they hope to open one day as a patio bar. Since 210 was once a restaurant, food could be incorporated, as well.

For now, however, since the club opened its doors last October, Reno residents still marvel at what 210 North has given them for the first time ever. “They’re dressing up. We have a dress code that we enforce, but they seem to be enjoying that,” Stone reports. “They like having a place where they can go feel the music, dance and get a great drink. I mean, it’s why people go out: To blow off some steam and have a great time.”

www.210north.com

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