Two large-scale guitar structures at Hard Rock Casino Tejon show how custom fabrication can connect a destination’s branding with local identity and place-making.
Gable has created two large-scale guitar monuments for Hard Rock Casino Tejon in California, a project designed to give the 306-acre tribal-led development a visible architectural identity. The installation includes a 57-foot roadside Gibson Les Paul-inspired structure and a 25-foot acoustic-style sculpture at the property’s porte cochere. Together, the features connect Hard Rock’s music-led branding with the Tejon Indian Tribe’s cultural presence as the casino establishes itself as a regional entertainment destination.
The roadside guitar weighs 19,300 pounds and required 4,000 labour hours over 78 days, according to Gable. Its custom-shaped steel frame and integrated lighting are intended to make the structure visible around the clock along the approach to the property. The scale is deliberately theatrical: the company says a person would need to be approximately 100 feet tall to play the monument.
The porte cochere sculpture stands 25 feet tall and weighs 8,800 pounds. Its Spanish-style acoustic form incorporates layered finishes and lighting details, while a basket-weave layer draws inspiration from the Tejon Indian Tribe and a second layer reflects Hard Rock’s stated mottos. Production took 2,700 labour hours across 48 days, adding a more textural and locally referenced counterpart to the roadside installation.
Gable worked with Giovanni Taliaferro, Hard Rock’s vice-president of memorabilia and design, to develop the concept and deliver the structures through technical design, engineering, fabrication and installation. The completed elements travelled 2,675 miles across the country before reaching the casino. The project places specialist visual communications work inside the broader design language of a hospitality property, where exterior landmarks can serve both wayfinding and cultural storytelling functions.
The Tejon guitars extend Gable’s work at Hard Rock properties in Ottawa, Rockford and Bristol, while giving the California site its own interpretation of the brand’s familiar guitar form. For the Tejon Indian Tribe, the monument represents a connection between heritage, community investment and the casino’s development. For Gable, the project demonstrates how engineered structures can move beyond signage to become durable markers of a destination’s identity.
