Choctaw Casino & Resort Expansion to Open August 6
Luxury Expansion Creates a Journey of Discovery, Featuring a 1,000-Room Hotel Tower, Increased Gaming Capacity, and New Amenities
DURANT, OK—JCJ Architecture (JCJ), a forward-thinking and nationally ranked planning, architecture, and interior design firm, is pleased to announce that the Choctaw Casino & Resort Expansion in Durant, Oklahoma, will open to visitors on August 6, 2021. Designed by JCJ Architecture in collaboration with their design-build partners, Tutor Perini Corporation, the expanded property centers around a 21-story, luxury Sky Hotel Tower that ascends from an expansive resort pool and offers increased gaming and entertainment opportunities, amenities, restaurants, and a world-class, curated collection of Choctaw art.
Drawing upon a decade-long collaborative relationship, the design team consulted closely with members of the Choctaw Nation to realize the tribe’s mission and contribute to the community’s economic resilience beyond the casino campus. Committed to building upon and complementing the existing resort offerings, JCJ Architecture developed an expansion that elevates the guest experience and simultaneously solidifies the Choctaw’s continued dominance in the evolving gaming and hospitality market.
“When this project began, there was a collective desire to deliver an experience that would be exceptional and aspirational,” said Bob Gdowski, AIA, Director of Hospitality Design at JCJ Architecture. “We all recognize the inflection point that the casino experience is currently at across the marketplace, and with this project, we took a definitive stance to help tip that scale and define what tomorrow looks like. As gaming patrons across the globe have continued to become increasingly sophisticated and evolve their expectations, it was important that our design responded in kind. The Choctaw Nation inspired us toward a design that is architecturally refined, contextually responsive, and most importantly experientially engaging, helping evolve the market in the process.”
Visible on the skyline from 5 miles away, the soaring 21-story hotel tower serves as a gateway for visitors from the South while bookending the existing casino to the North. Designed as two curved towers that converge at the edge of US-75 the tower physically embraces the property while offering an iconic statement. The double-curve is articulated in a manner that is intended to come alive as it reflects the dynamic horizon throughout the day. The design underscores a theme of discovery—guests will discover something new from every approach to the property, a narrative that further unfurls throughout the enhanced interior guest experience. JCJ’s design dissolves the line between the indoors and out, achieved through strategic programming of outdoor spaces, biophilic elements, and natural materials, daylighting, and multidirectional outdoor views.
A world-class collection of Choctaw art created entirely by Choctaw artists lines the Sky Tower’s walls and walkways. Additionally, the design team incorporated subtle yet meaningful references to Choctaw motifs throughout the property, paying tribute to the tribe’s cultural values in an understated way. In addition to the 1,000-key hotel, the expansion increases gaming capacity with 3,300 new slot machines, 40 new table games, and a poker room with 30 additional tables. The addition of a bowling alley, arcade, and two movie theatres broadens the property’s family-friendly offerings. Three new restaurants, 11 new bars and lounges, and a new retail space ensure that there is something for everyone at the Choctaw Casino & Resort.
“I am extremely grateful to everyone who has played a role in delivering such a magnificent, top-tier entertainment destination for our region that not only elevates the experience for our guests, but elevates the lives of tribal members, individuals, and families living across the state,” said Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton. “This expansion equals 1,000 new jobs, millions in economic growth for southeastern Oklahoma, funding for much-needed services for tribal members and our fellow Oklahomans, and additional dollars for education and infrastructure improvements on a state level.”
Additional collaborators on the project include landscape architecture firm Lifescapes International, engineering consultant NV5, foodservice design firm RJS + Associates, architectural lighting design firm Lighting Design Alliance, visual signage consultant Gable, and structural engineering firms DeSimone and Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers.
About JCJ Architecture
JCJ Architecture is a forward-thinking and nationally ranked planning, architecture and interior design firm offering comprehensive services to clients in the hospitality, gaming, civic, K12 and higher education sectors. Founded in 1936, the employee-owned firm’s mission is to provide innovative design solutions that enhance the environment, enrich people’s lives and help organizations succeed.
With a long-standing reputation for business acumen and project delivery excellence, JCJ focuses on bringing the qualities of adaptability, integrity, respect and collaboration to a design process that leverages the unique qualities and potential of each project. JCJ collaborates with clients across the United States from offices located in Boston, Hartford, New York City, Phoenix, San Diego, Tulsa, and Las Vegas. For more information, please visit www.jcj.com.
About Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Okla.
Located an hour north of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex lies a AAA Four Diamond resort and entertainment destination in southeastern Oklahoma. Choctaw Casino & Resort–Durant is a three-level convention/entertainment venue offering more than 100,000 square feet of meeting and convention space with seating for more than 3,000. Resort amenities include swimming, shopping, dining, a spa, and the region’s premier entertainment complex, The District, with dining, drinks, 20 bowling lanes, a 70-game arcade, and state-of-the-art movie theater. In August 2021, a major expansion added the Sky Tower: 21 stories high featuring 1,000 new luxury hotel rooms, additional slot machines, table games, a new poker room, new restaurants, bars, movie theaters and a three-acre swimming pool and giant water slide. For more information, visit choctawcasinos.com.
