Las Vegas Public Art

The Big Edge: A Nautical Bouquet in the Heart of the Mojave

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

By the Wicked Cool Places editors · Published Thu, Aug 27, 2026 · Updated Fri, Aug 28, 2026

Why it’s cool

This massive installation transforms more than 200 aluminum canoes and kayaks into a blooming, gravity-defying floral arrangement. It serves as a surreal nautical landmark in the middle of a desert metropolis.

Southwest Boutique

A large public sculpture made of colorful canoes and rowboats clustered together like a bouquet in a city plaza.

In a city known for artificial wonders, a massive cluster of watercraft blooming from the pavement of CityCenter offers one of the most surreal sights in Las Vegas. This installation, titled Big Edge, brings a fleet of over 200 aluminum vessels to the parched landscape of the Southwest.

While the surrounding skyscrapers are built of glass and steel, this sculpture uses the familiar forms of recreational boats to create an organic, floral shape that seems entirely out of place among the neon lights and luxury casinos.

Why It Stands Out

Artist Nancy Rubins completed this 75-foot-long masterpiece in 2009. It is a signature example of her work, which often involves bundling industrial objects like airplane parts or water heaters into massive, flowering structures.

For this specific piece, Rubins utilized a variety of small craft, including kayaks, rowboats, sailboats, and canoes. Each individual vessel weighs between 60 and 125 pounds, yet they are joined together in a way that suggests weightlessness.

The sculpture is often described as a metallic bouquet. Thousands of pounds of stainless steel cables and supports hold the boats in a configuration that appears to hover above the plaza.

This gravity-defying arrangement creates a striking visual irony. Boats, which are designed to float on water, are here suspended in the air within one of the driest environments in North America.

While the artist has not assigned a specific meaning to the work, the presence of so much nautical equipment on dry land highlights the strange reality of building a lush, sprawling city in the heart of an arid desert.

Before You Go

The installation is located within the CityCenter complex. You can find the sculpture situated directly to the west of the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino.

The nearby Cosmopolitan also hosts the Art-o-mat vending machines. It is an open-air piece, making it accessible for viewing at any time of day as you walk through the plaza.

Questions worth answering

Where exactly should we look for this installation?

Walk to the area just west of the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino. You will find the sculpture sitting right in the middle of the CityCenter plaza.

What kind of materials did the artist use for the sculpture?

Nancy Rubins used over 200 aluminum vessels to build this piece. The collection includes rowboats, sailboats, and kayaks that each weigh up to 125 pounds.

Is there a specific time we need to visit?

The piece sits in an open-air plaza. You can walk through and see it at any hour of the day.

How does the piece stay together without falling?

Thousands of pounds of stainless steel cables provide the support. These hidden structures allow the massive metallic bouquet to look like it is hovering.

Visit Snapshot

The sculpture is located in the CityCenter plaza. To find it, head directly west from the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino.

Admission

Free. Public art at Harmon Circle, near the Vdara entrance.

Location

Las Vegas, Nevada

Know before you go

The sculpture is directly west of the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino and can be accessed from there.

Editorial source

The Big Edge

Right off the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, amidst luxury casinos and towering neon lights, lies something completely out of place. Although bodies of water in the Mojave Desert are hard to come by, Las Vegas holds a collection of over 200 full-sized boats in the middle of the dry land and towering glass skyscrapers that make up Vegas’ CityCenter plaza.

Nancy Rubins’ “Big Edge” sculpture combines over 200 aluminum canoes, kayaks, rowboats, and sailboats, each weighing between 60 and 125 pounds, into one flowering cluster of art. Built in 2009 and still standing today, Big Edge stands at a length of 75 feet and brightens up the day of every visitor to the CityCenter.

Described as a “bouquet” and a “big metal flower,” Big Edge is the epitome of Nancy Rubins’ sculpture art, which specializes in clustering airplane parts, water heaters, and other industrial consumer goods into blooming bundles. Big Edge has also been described as “gravity-defying,” as thousands of pounds of stainless steel are used to make the sculpture appear as if it’s hovering above the ground.

Although Rubins claims that Big Edge has no explicit meaning, its “boats on dry land” concept does draw attention to the troubling difficulties of building a verdant, lush metropolis in the center of an arid desert.

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