The New York Times called his work “the Rolls Royce of the genre,” appropriate since he got started in automobile design. A former nightclub singer, he brought theatrical flair to the hospitality stage. A master of detail, he pioneered what one mentee calls “spague,” specific yet vague, with just enough information to keep clients engaged. He was Henry “Bud” Conversano, a founding father of the modern casino and broader integrated resorts concept who passed away in September at age 86.

“Henry’s influence on the current gaming industry was monumental,” leading casino design Paul Steelman says. “Henry realized that casino design was the key to financial success for the owners and operators.”

A native New Yorker, Conversano studied industrial design at Pratt Institute and went to work for General Motors in Detroit. He moved to California, turned to furniture design and, as a supplier to an interior designer, attended a meeting with William Harrah, a seminal figure in Nevada gaming, founder of Harrah’s, now Caesars Entertainment. The meeting didn’t go well for the designer, prompting an exasperated Harrah to ask if Conversano could do better. Turns out he could.

Conversano became Harrah’s interior designer for personal and casino projects, most notably Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, opened in 1973. The northern Nevada property was the first five-star rated casino resort, featuring themed suites and dramatic public spaces. “Harrah’s Tahoe was very theatrical. It enhanced your visit to the region, it was filled with energy, but most of all it was [financially] successful,” Steelman says. “Bill Harrah was in the gaming business since the late 1930s, yet somehow, he’d just created the most successful new casino in the world, and it was in Lake Tahoe.”

During that association, the Steelman Partners CEO says Conversano absorbed Harrah’s know how. “He followed religiously one of Bill Harrah’s rules: the casino design needs to be five-star to attract the higher end five-star gamblers. Of course, all of the gamblers with less to spend will want to have that opulent Harrah’s Experience.”

When casinos were legalized for Atlantic City in 1974, developers reached out to Nevada designers. Conversano decided to limit his involvement to friend and previous client Hugh Hefner and a 30-something upstart who’d revived the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, Steve Wynn. (Conversano later worked with another brash, notably less adept casino developer, Donald Trump, and even designed his Trump Tower residence two wives ago.)

“Henry believed that the Golden Nugget should live within the flamboyant beach context of a bygone era but be updated, modern, clever and theatrical,” Steelman says. Opened in 1980, Golden Nugget Atlantic City became the town’s most successful casino, and Conversano entered Wynn’s design inner circle. “When I would discuss something with Steve Wynn, in his voice, I would hear Henry in what he taught Steve and many others,” Steelman, whose rule breaking design at Sands Macao enabled the global gaming capital’s stratospheric rise, says.

During that period, through a friend’s husband, architect Brad Friedmutter met Conversano, and learned they both grew up in Flushing, Queens. “There was natural chemistry,” Friedmutter, who, like Steelman, later worked with Wynn’s design team, then founded Friedmutter Group in 1992, says.

“Henry was a master of reading people in the room during meetings,” Friedmutter says. Conversano would be spague enough to tease out their views and then with “a little squint and little twinkle in his eye” seize on them. Friedmutter says Conversano carried a small satchel “a magic bag, like he was on Let’s Make A Deal, and he would pull out something appropriate” for the situation.

“He said we have to design with a punchline,” Friedmutter recalls. Thanks to Conversano, casinos became Friedmutter’s professional focus with a portfolio that includes architectural and design work at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas and the casino in Macau’s Studio City for Lawrence Ho’s Melco Resorts and Entertainment.

After teaming on Lost City for Sol Kerzner’s Sun City in South Africa, Steelman worked with Conversano “for four years, everyday” on Mirage Resort, now part of MGM Resorts International, that Wynn opened in 1989, heralding the Las Vegas Strip’s transition to luxury. “We rented a warehouse in Oakland, built a full-size sample of the Mirage ceiling, and Steve walked in and rejected it in 30 seconds,” Steelman says.

“I learned a lot from Henry, but most of all to listen carefully. Don’t be ‘the architect’ – be a customer and take the owner’s design vision and shape it for him. As popular as Henry was, he was a great listener.” With Conversano’s passing, Steelman adds, “One thing is for sure: Heaven will be getting a makeover.”