Wynn's master cake artist creates an edible, unforgettable centerpiece in honor of the iconic Frank Gehry-designed Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the man who inspired it all.
It’s fitting that a center devoted to keeping memory alive would be housed in such an unforgettable building. Legendary architect Frank Gehry was the mastermind behind the design and Lou Ruvo, long-time Las Vegas resident, business man and Alzheimer’s patient, was the inspiration for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
In honor of Lou Ruvo and this world-class facility, Wynn’s master cake artist Flora Agahababyan spent over 60 hours working on the three-dimensional replica of the Frank Gehry designed building with its swooping lines and curved façade. The vanilla cake accented with lemon cream, enrobed in a unique stainless steel-colored fondant and accented with modeling chocolate and gum paste, served as the showpiece for the late Ruvo's 100th birthday celebration last week in Las Vegas.
Larry Ruvo, Lou’s son and driving force behind the facility, understood the struggle families faced first-hand trying to navigate treatment and limited care options for their loved ones after his father’s diagnosis in the early 1990's.
Enlisting the help of friends and colleagues after his father’s passing from Alzheimer’s, Larry worked tirelessly to develop the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health which opened in 2009. He believed that the design and architecture of the center was a necessary marketing tool; that a great building would attract the attention, resources and talent needed to bring the center to fruition.
Enter Frank Gehry. The distinctive building he designed is draped and wrapped in an undulating metal-clad skin and laced with grids of windows. On the interior amid its curved corridors, Gehry eschewed a typical medical setting and instead used rich, honey-colored Douglas fir to build the doors, frames and furniture. This is the same wood that he used in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and here, it creates a calming environment for patients and their families.
The building located in Symphony Park near downtown Las Vegas, also houses the headquarters of the non-profit Keep Memory Alive Foundation.
