&

COMMERCIAL VALUES AND COMMERCIAL METHODS 3

§ A SIGNIFICANCE FOR A&P PARKING LOTS,

OR LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS
"Substance for a writer consists not merely of those realities he
thinks he discovers; it consists even more of those realities which have
been made available to him by the literature and idioms of his own day
and by the images that still have vitality in the literature of the past.
Stylistically, a writer can express his feeling ahout this substance either
by imitation, if it sits well with him, or by parody, tf it doesn't. »1
(-- Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary
for an architect. Not the obvious way, which is to tear down Paris and
begin again, as Le Corbusier suggested in the 19205, but another, more
Lto1erant way; that is, to question how we look at things.
The commercial strip, the Las Vegas Strip in particular-the example
par excellence (Figs. 1 and 2)-challenges the architect to take a posi-
tive, non-chip-on-the-shoulder view. Architects are out of the habit of
looking nonjudgmentally at the environment, because orthodox Mod-
ern architecture is progressive, if not revolutionary, utopian, and puris-
tic; it is dissatisfied with existing conditions. Modern architecture haS-
[ been anything but permissive: Architects have preferred to change the
existing environment rather than enhance what is there. -
l But to gain insight from the commonplace is nothing new: Fine art
~~ often follows folk art. Romantic architects of the eighteenth century
' discovered an existing and conventional rustic architecture. Early Mod-
ern architects appropriated an existing and conventional industrial
vocabulary without much adaptation. Le Corbusier loved grain eleva-
tors and steamships; the Bauhaus looked like a fac~o~y;Mies refined th.e
details of American steel factories for concrete buildings. Modern archi-
tects work through analogy, symbol, and im.age-althoug~ they have
gone to lengths to disclaim almost all determmants of the~r fc.'r~s ex-
cept structural necessity and the program-sand they den~e insights,
analogies, and stimulation from unexpected Images: There ISa pe.,",:er-
sity in the learning process: We look backward at history and tradition
to go forward' we can also look downward to go upward. And With-l
holding judgment may be use~ as a tool to m~ke later judgment more
sensitive. This is a way of learnmg from everything. .......

§ COMMERCIAL VALVES AND COMMERCIAL METHODS

Las Vegas is analyzed here only as a phenomenon of architectural

§ See material under the corresponding heading in the Studio Notes section fol- lowing
Part I.
1. Richard Poirier, "T. S. Eliot and the Literature of Waste," The New Republic
(May20,1967),p.21.
4

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LEARN/NG FROM LAS VEGAS ARCHITECTURE AS SYMBOL
6 7

communication. Just as an analysis of the structure of,a Los ~ngeles. ~rchitects have been brought up on Space, and
Goth~c.cathe- dral need not include a debate on the morality of
enclosed space IS the easiest to handle. During the last 40 years
me,dleval religion, ~o Las Vegas's values are not questioned here. theorists of Mod- ern architecture (Wright and ~e ~orbu~ier
The morahty ~fc0t?merclal sometim~s excepted) have focused .on. space as the essential ingredient
advertising, gambling interests, and ,the :ompetitive i~stJOct IS ~ot
~t that separates architecture
.
I ssue h. . although indeed we believe It should be In the fro.m pamtmg, sculptu:e, and literature. Their definitions glory in the
. ". ,
architect
..
s
""
~ , b
,
broader synthetic tasks of which an analysis such as this \S ut ~mqueness of the me~lUm; although sculpture and painting may some-
one as- pect. The analysis of a drive-in chur.c~ in this context tlme~ be allowed spatial characteristics, sculptural or pictorial
would match that of a drive-in restaurant, because this IS a study of
method. not wotent. Analysis of one of the architectural
varia~le.s in ,is?lation from the
architec- ture IS unacceptable-because Space is sacred.
Puri~t, architect~re was partly a reaction against nineteenth-century
eclecticism. Go~hlc churches, Renaissance banks, and Jacobean manors
I
\ others is a respectable scientific a~d hum~m.stlc acuvrtv, so lon.g as. all were. frankly plc.ture~que: The mixing of styles meant the
mixing of
'/ are resynthesized in design. Analysis of exrsung Amencan urba~lsm IS a
l1 socially desirable activity to the exten~ th~t it, teaches us architects to :n:edla. Dressed I': hlsto,ncal styles, buildings evoked explicit
\ be more understanding and less authontanan m the plans we make for associa-
{i both inner-city renewal and new development. In addition, ther~ is no trons a,:d romantic allusions to the past to convey literary, ecclesiasti-
reason why the methods of commercial persuasion and the skyline cal, national, or programmatic symbolism. Definitions of architecture
of signs analyzed here should not serve the purpose of civic and cultural as space and "form at the service of
enhancement. But this is not entirely up to the architect. program and structure were not enough. The
overlapping of disciplines may have diluted the architec- ~ ture,
but it enriched the meaning.
BILLBOARDS ARE ALMOST ALL
. Modern architects abandoned a tradition of iconology in which
RIGHT
paint- mg, sculpture, and graphics were combined with architecture.
Architects who can accept the lessons of primitive vernacular archi- The deli- cate hieroglyphics on a bold pylon, the 'archetypal
tecture, so easy to take in an exhibit like "Architecture without inscriptions of a R~ma~ architrave, the mosaic processions in
Archi- tects," and of industrial, vernacular architecture, so easy Sant'Apollinare, the ubiquitous tattoos over a Giotto Chapel, the enshrined
to adapt to an hierarchies
around a Gothic portal, even the illusionistic frescoes in a Venetian
electronic and space vernacular as elaborate neo-Brutalist or neo- , villa, all contain messages beyond their ornamental contribution to ar-
Con- structivist megastructures, do not easily acknowledge the validity t chitectural space. The integration of the arts in Modern architecture has
of the
 commercial vernacular. For the artist, creating the new may mean
choosing the old or the existing. Pop artists have relearned this. Our ac-
[ knowledgment of existing, commercial architecture at the scale of
the highway is within this tradition.
Modern architecture has not so much excluded the commercial ver-
nacular as it has tried to take it over by inventing and enforcing a ver-
nacular of its own, improved and universal. It has rejected the
combina- tion of fine art and crude art. The Italian landscape has
always harmo- nized the vulgar and the Vitruvian: the contorni around
the duomo, the portiere'S laundry across the padrone's portone,
always been called a good thing. But one did not paint on Mies. Painted
?~nels were floated independently of the structure by means of shadow
~ jomts ; sculpture was in or near but seldom on the building. Objects of
. l art were used to reinforce architectural space at the expense of their
own content. The Kolbe in the Barcelona Pavilion was a foil to the
directed spaces: The message was mainly architectural. The
diminutive signs in most Modem buildings contained only the most
necessary mes- sages, like LADIES, minor accents begrudgingly
applied.

Supercortemaggiore against the Romanesque apse. Naked children have ARCHITECTURE AS SYMBOL
never played in our fountains, and L M. Pei will never be happy on Critics and historians, who documented the "decline of popular
Route 66.
sym- bols" in art, supported orthodox Modem architects, who
shunned sym- bolism of form as an expression or reinforcement of content:
ARCHITECTURE AS SPACE meaning ~ was to be communicated, not through allusion to
"
previously known \ forms, but through the inherent, physiognomic
Architects have been bewitched by a single element of the Italian
characteristics of form.
landscape: the piazza. Its traditional, pedestrian-scaled, and intricately
!he creation of architectural form was to be a logical process, free
enclosed space is easier to like than the spatial sprawl of Route 66 and
from Images of past experience, determined solely by program and
structure,
8 LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS THE ARCHITECTURE OF PERSUASION 9

with an occasional assist, as Alan Colquhoun has suggested," from in- Styles and signs make connections among many elements, far apart and
tuition.
seen fast. The message is basely commercial; the context is basically
But some recent critics have questioned the possible level of content to new.
be derived from abstract forms. Others have demonstrated that the A driver 30 years ago could maintain a sense of orientation in space.
functionalists, despite their protestations, derived a formal vocabulary of At the simple crossroad a little sign with an arrow confirmed what was
their own, mainly from current art movements and the industrial ver- obvious. One knew where one was. When the crossroads becomes a
nacular; and latter-day followers such as the Arc.h1gra))1 group have turned, cloverleaf, one must tum right to tum left, a contradiction poignantly
while similarly protesting, to Pop Art and the space industry. evoked in the print by Allan D'Arcangelo (Fig. 7). But the driver has no time
However,. most critics have slighted a continuing iconology in popular to ponder paradoxical subtleties within a dangerous, sinuous maze. He or she
commercial art, the persuasive heraldry that pervades our environment relies on signs for guidance-enormous signs in vast spaces at high speeds.
from the advertising pages of The New Yorker to the superbillboards of The dominance of signs over space at a pedestrian scale occurs in big
HOlls,ton', And their theory of the "debasement" of symbolic architec-
,airports. Circulation in a big railroad station required little more than a simple
11 ture III runeteenth-centurv eclecticism has blinded them to the value of axial system from taxi to train, by ticket window, stores, waiting room, and
the rep~esentat.ional architecture along highways. Those who acknowl- platform-all virtually without signs. Architects object to signs in
edge this roadside eclecticism denigrate it, because it flaunts the cliche buildings: "If the plan is clear, you can see where to go." But ~ complex
o~ a decade ago as well as the style of a century ago. But why not? programs and settings require c.Q.!!lplexcombinations of media
TIme travels fast today.
Th M' . beyond the purer architectural triad of structure, form, and light at the service
~ iarru Beach Modern motel on a bleak stretch
souto em Delaware reminds jaded drivers of the welcome luxury of a
of highway in
tr.opical resort r pcrrssuua diIllg t h em, per h aps to forgo the gracIO. us
,,I
of space. They suggest an architecture
than one of subtle expression.
of bold communication rather

planta-
~lOnM~cr~ssthe Virginia border called Mo~el Monticello. The real hotel
III iarm alludes to I . al' ..
thehi h . mternatio stylishness of a Brazil i an resort, § THE ARCHITECTURE OF PERSUASION
e
n
wThICi i vesf
mturnder .' rom thIe' ntemarional Style of middle Cobr u.
I IS evolution from the high Source through the middle source to the The cloverleaf and airport communicate with moving crowds in cars or
~
s~urce h~ook only 30 years. Today, the middle source, the neo-
its ecnc arc .Itecture of the 1940s and the 1950s is less interesting than
on foot for efficiency
in space for commercial
and safety. But words and symbols may be used
persuasion (Figs. 6, 28). The Middle Eastern
bazaar contains no signs; the Strip is virtually all signs (Fig. 8). In the
mg tt an theIh sreal
commercIal adaptati
Ed S, one.IOns. oa Sl e R dsidof Ed Stone
copres .' are more m- eres .
bazaar, communication works through proximity. Along its nar- row aisles,
buyers feel and smell the, merchandise, and the merchant ap-
plies explicit oral persuasion. In the narrow streets of the medieval town,
§ SYMBOL IN SPACE BEFORE FORM IN SPACE:
although signs occur, persuasion is mainly through the sight and
LAS VEGAS AS A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
The sign for the M tIM " , smell of the real cakes through the doors and windows of the bakery.
On Main Street, shop-window displays for pedestrians along the side-
pendal hi hb Y "~.e onticello, a silhouette of an enormous Chip- walks and exterior signs, perpendicular to the street for motorists, dom-
architeec, 19 0r ' IS VISIble on the highway before the motel itself. This inate the scene almost equally.
co ure 0 styles an d si
unicati SIgnS .IS antispatial
. ; it is an architecture 0
f
:2!llIDunication over s-a . ., -:- I On the commercial strip the supermarket windows contain no mer-
ment~'h hi ce, commumcano-, dominates space as an e e- chandise. There may be signs announcing the day's bargains, but they
e
d iIII .. f
a rc Itecture hi an' andscape (Figs. 1-6). But I t IS or a are to be read by pedestrians approaching from the parking lot. The
new scale ori dan sc ape Th hilt e h' I
ticism evok d b I . ep asap ical associations of the old ec ec-
e su ue and com 1 . h d '1 building itself is set back from the highway and half hidden, as is most
I '
spaces of a' diti P e x meamngs to be savored III t e OCIe of the urban environment, by parked cars (Fig. 9). The vast parking lot
. r a itional lands Th . . f d
S Ide eclectic,'s m k cape. e commercial persuaSIO n a roa -
of a new land provo es b Id . . ' is in front, not at is
thelow
rear, because
since it is air
a symbol as well as demands
a convenience.
. 0 Impact m the vast and complex settmg The building conditioning low spaces, and
scape of bIg spaces, hi'g speeds, and complex programs.
2. Alan Colquhoun "T
h merchandising techniques discourage second floors; its architecture is
tectural Associatio~0 ypology and Design Method," Arena, Joumal of the Archi- une
1967), pp. 11-14. neutral because it can hardly be seen from the road. Both merchandise
r 10
11

6. Night messages, Las Vegas

7. Allan D'Arcangelo, The Trip

DIRECTIONAL SPACE
3. Dunes Casino and Hotcl L V
, as egas SPACE· SCALE SPEED SYMBOL
8ig~,bIdg ,al'"

,I EASTERN BAZAAR ;I M.PJi.

! L
,
;
I
IolEDIEVAl STREET

MAIN STREET
3 M.P.H.

20 M.P.H.
•
w ill

- 3 M.P.1t.

COMMERCIAL STRIP d 35 MP.H.

THE STRIP
35M.P.Il.

4. Weddtmg chapel , La Vegas

SHOpPING CEHTE!!8O ......... -~ 3 IlU'.H.
501IU'.H.
• w ill
8. A comparative analysis of directional spaces

ust Ca .
Sloo and Hotel, Las Vegas
5. S
t
a
r
d
j. .
,
,
,
,
1,
9. Parking lot of a
suburban supermarket
 12

LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS

and architecture are disconnected from the road. The big sign leaps to
connect the driver to the store, and down the road the cake mixes and
detergents are advertised by their national manufacturers on enormous
billboards inflected toward the highway. The graphic sign in space has
become the architecture of this landscape (Figs. 10, 11). Inside, the
A&P has reverted to the bazaar except that graphic packaging has re-
, placed the oral persuasion of the merchant. At another scale, the shop-
ping center off the highway returns in its pedestrian malls to the medie-
val street.

§ VAST SPACE IN THE HISTORICAL TRADITION

AND AT THE A&P
The A&P parking lot is a current phase in the evolution of vast space
since Versailles (Fig. 12). The space that divides high-speed highway
and low, sparse buildings produces no enclosure and little direction. To
move through a piazza is to move between high enclosing forms. To
move through this landscape is to move over vast expansive texture: the
megatexture of the commercial landscape. The parking lot is the
parterre of the asphalt landscape (Fig. 13). The patterns of parking lines
give direction much as the paving patterns, curbs, borders, and tapis
vert give direction in Versailles; grids of lamp posts substitute for
10. Tanya billboard h . obelisks, rows of urns and statues as points of identity and continuity
on t e Strip in the vast space. But it is the highway signs.. through their sculptural
Forms or pictorial silhouettes, their particular positions in space, their
inflected shapes, and their graphic meanings, that identify and unify the
megatexture. They make verbal and symbolic connections through
space, communicating a complexity of meanings through hundreds of
associations in few seconds from far away. Symbol dominates space.
Architecture is not enough. Because the spatial relationships are made
by symbols more than by forms, architecture in this landscape becomes?
symbol in space rather than form in space. Architecture defines very}
little: The big sign and the little building is the rule of Route 66.
The sign is more important than the architecture. This is reflected in
the proprietor's budget. The sign at the front is a vulgar extravaganza,
the building at the back, a modest necessity. The architecture is what is
cheap. Sometimes the building is the sign: The duck store in the shape
of a duck, called "The Long Island Duckling," (Figs. 14,15) is sculp-
tural symbol and architectural shelter. Contradiction between outside
and inside was common in architecture before the Modern movement,
particularly in urban and monumental architecture (Fig. 16). Baroque
domes were symbols as well as spatial constructions, and they are bigger
in scale and higher outside than inside in order to dominate their urban
setting and communicate their symbolic message. The false fronts of

n. Lower St' l
rip. ooking north
J
VASTSPACE~
--
1m'
SPACE· SCALE SYMBOL
~ v«lrdarcntectU'e
:& W .. elements

VERSAIllES

~!C---
* I', " ,~ .. s:ta:tu,es;-ur:ns~".'.
~.M1
curbs ~'

ENGUSHGARDEN~ ~

---- ~,' =
trees
runes
_ofkwe

.. usonian houses
ranch houses

VIllE RAOIEUSf

- w
HIGHWAY
INTERCHANGE

w w green signs

THE STRIP
. --.-:.,

~ W III see other topics

SPACE· SCALE.
12.A ,ompU'!;., ''''Iy . SPEED. SYMBOL
SIS of vast
spaces
• 17
16

o [J

BIG SIC>H- unLE BUILOING

OR

BUILDING'S SIGN

15. Big sign-little building or building

as sign

-r
14. "The Long Island Due kfmg"from
j God's Own junkyard

I
SCALE SPEED SYMBOL

..
~ •

I ••
••
p81'suaderto

•eo AMIENS enclosed space

, >• .
W

-u, ••
"
M'-.
J. -, ~.s
EGYPTIAN
•
~
• &'
" ~"" '0 space divider with
Mr'

,
-~/ civic messages

"0
c:ompIe.-sPSC"
.. 0 WS
~
.
, . . ,, , •
-e co.....ctor

.
T R I U M PHAL

,
I~ 0 ROMAN
~ . •~ ambiguous

•
bael< dl'CJl
U
vnt ce
0
.5 THEATRE

...
-e
-e

, ~
< ~i~RD " .. _. ,
,."
~
• 0
 persuader

-s-r-r-ccr~: ._.:.'
, vssl-space

connector
~

LAS VEGAS

fJi.:;,-:

16. A comparativ.e ana l'yS1S 0 f "billboards" in space

18 FROM ROME TO LAS VEGAS
LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS 19

~est~rn stores did the same thing: They were bigger and taller than the
roofed, are shown in minute detail through darker poche. Interiors of churches read like
mte nors t hey fro nted to communicate the store's ,. t
dh endance
h t e.quality ~nd unity of the street. But false fronts are
rnpor ance
of the piazzas and courtyards of palaces, yet a variety of qualities and scales is articulated.
an to
or er and scale of Mam Street. From the desert town on the highw . the
~Vest of today, we can learn new and vivid lessons about an impure
a r chIt ectu re of communication The little I mgsb gray-brown
ildi § MAPS OF LAS VEGAS
l. i k h d ow Ul

1 e t e . esert, separate and recede from the street that is now the hi h ;ay as 19,. l~hsig~s: If you take the signs away, there is no place Th~ esert town IS
way, th~~rf~~e fronts disengagedand turned perpendicular to the h::h- mtensifled communication along th e hi19hway. .
 A "Nolli " map of the Las Vegas Strip reveals and clarifies what is public and
FROM ROME TO LAS VEGAS what is private, but here the scale is enlarged by the inclu- sion of the parking lot,
and the solid-to-void ratio is reversed by the open spaces of the desert. Mapping the
Nolli components from an aerial photograph provides an intriguing crosscut of Strip
systems (Fig. 18). These components, separated and redefined, could be undeveloped
Las Vegas is the apotheosis of the d rt town ' , land, asphalt, autos, buildings, and ceremonial space (Figs. 19 a-e). Re-
the mid-1960s was like visiting R esc: th .VISitIng Las Vegas in mencans assembled, they describe the Las Vegas equivalent of the pilgrims' way, although the
In the 1940s. f
. T nl . orne In . elate or young
1940sCItyF and description, like Nolli's map, misses the iconological dimensions of the experience
A
the antiurban th~O;i~S~I ~\~ y w,lth the auto-scaled, gridiron (Fig. 20).
the traditIOnal urban spaces th de pr~vIOusarchitectural generanon, A conventional. land-use map of Las Vegas can show the overall struc- ture of
. .. , e pe esrnan scale and th "
contmumee of styles of the It I' ' e mIX ures, yet " commercial use in the city as it relates to other uses but none of
rediscovereda Ian piazzas were a signifi
T thed piazza d t I·
ican reve ation.
Th ey the detail of use type or intensity. "Land-use" maps of the insides of
II
. wo casino complexes, however, begin to suggest the systematic planning
d f
rea y or Similar lessons about I eca es later archite t are per haps
speed. Las Vegas is to the Stnp whatR ope~ space, big scale, and high c s that all casinos share (Fig. 21). Strip "address" and "establishment"
a orne ISto the Pia maps can depict both intensity and variety of use (Fig. 22). Distribu- tion maps
ere are otherThparallels betwee R zza.
sive settings in the Campagna ;, o~e an~ Las Vegas: their expan- -show patterns of, for example, churches, and food stores (Figs. 24, 25) that Las
that tend to focus and clarify a~ .Ill ,t e Malave Desert, for instance, Vegas shares with other cities and those such as wedding chapels and auto rental
Vegas was built In a day or rathe eI:hlmag~s. On the other hand, Las desert in a stations (Figs. 26, 27) that are Strip- oriented and unique. It is extremely hard to
short time It' was n t r, e. Strip was developed in a VIrgin suggest the atmospheric
were . a superimposed on Id qualities of Las Vegas, because these are primarily dependent on watts
th
ctial e pilgrim's Rome f th C
e ounterRefo an a er pattern as (Fig. 23), animation, and iconology: however, "message maps," tourist
strips of eastern cities and aIt' h -f t
rma IOn and the com mer.
is an archetype rather than a tIS t ere are easier to study. Each city maps, and brochures suggest some of it (Figs. 28, 71).
which to derive lessons for th~rto o,tYaIPe'Eaenx~ggerated example from I f
ypic . ach city vi idl .
~ e,ments a a supranational scale on the I . IVI Y supenmposes § MAIN STREET AND THE STRIP
ligious capital, casinos and th ' ?cal fabric: churches in the re-
These cause Violent J'uxtap itio SIgnS In the entertainment capital A street map of Las Vegas reveals two scales of movement within the gridiron plan:
R h ' OSIIons of use and aI .
d ' that of Main Street and that of the Strip (Figs. 29,30),
o rne s c urches off streets an pi azzas sc e In both cities The main street of Las Vegas is Fremont Street, and the earlier of two
p i gnm,
l religious or' architectural ' are open to the pubhc' the .
ga~bler or archItect III Las Ve' :san wal~ f:om church to church.'The casinOSalong concentrations of casinos is located along three of four blocks of this
the Stnp The g can Similarly take in a variety of street (Fig. 31), The casinos here are bazaarlike in the immediacy to the sidewalk of their
caSinOSand . lobb f L
ba k aI and monumental and
rnent les 0 as Vegas are orna clicking and tinkling
Fremont Street casinos gambling
and hotels machines (Fig.
focus on the 32). The
railroad depot at the
d 'I open to the promen d' - ral road
stations excepted
. ~ s an h a mg publIc; a few old
cities. Nolh's map of the m·d h ,t ey are unique In American d I -elg head of the street; here the railroad and main street scales of movement connect. The
teen th
an. complex connectIOns between u ' century reveals the sensitive depot building is now gone, replaced by a hotel, and the bus station is now the
(Fig. 17). Private buildmg is sh p bhc and pnvate Space in Rome busier entrance to town, but the axial focus on the railroad depot from Fremont
into by the public spaces exte~wn ln gray c,rosshatching that is carved Street was visual, and possibly sym-
, lOr an d Intenor Th
. ese spaces, open or
 21

20 SYSTEM AND ORDER ON THE STRIP

balie. This contrasts with the Strip, where a second and later develop-
ment of casinos extends southward to the airport, the jet-scale entrance
to town (Figs. 23, 24, 42, 43, 52, 54). . .
One's first introduction to Las Vegas architecture IS a forebear of
Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal, which is the local airport building. Be-
yond this piece of architectural image, impressions are scaled to the car
rented at the airport. Here is the unraveling of the famous Strip itself,
which, as Route 91, connects the airport with the downtown (Fig. 33).

§ SYSTEM AND-ORDER ON THE STRIP

The image of the commercial strip is chaos. The order in this land-
scape is not obvious (Fig. 34). The continuous highway itself and its
systems for turning are absolutely consistent. The median strip accom-
modates the If-turns necessary to a vehicular promenade for casino
crawlers as well as left turns onto the local street pattern that the Strip
intersects. The curbing allows frequent right turns for casinos and other
commercial enterprises and easef the difficult transitions from highway
to parking. The streetlights function superfluously along many parts of
the Strip that are incidentally but abundantly lit by signs, but their con-
sistency of form and position and their arching shapes begin to identify
by day a continuous space of the highway, and the constant rhythm
contrasts effectively with the uneven rhythms of the signs behind
(Fig. 35).
This counterpoint reinforces the contrast between two types of order
on the Strip: the obvious visual order of street elements and the diffi-
cult visual order of buildings and signs. The zone of the highway is a
shared order. The zone off the highway is an individual order (Fig. 36).
The elements of the highway are civic. The buildings and signs are pri-
vate. In combination they embrace continuity and discontinuity, going
and stopping, clarity and ambiguity, cooperation and competition,the
community and rugged individualism. The system of the highway gives
order to the sensitive functions of exit and entrance as well as to the
i~~ge of the Strip as a sequential whole. It also gene;ates places for in-
dividual enterprises to grow and controls the general direction of that
growth. It allows variety and change along its sides and accommodates
the contrapuntal, competitive order of the individual enterprises.
T~ere is an order along the sides of the highway. Varieties of activities
are Juxtaposed on the Strip: service stations minor motels and multi- million-
dollar casinos. Marriage chapels ("cr~dit cards acce~ted") con- verted from
bungalows with added neon-lined steeples are apt to appear anywhere tow~rd
the downtown end. Immediate proximity of related uses, as on Mam Street,
where you walk from one store to another, is
22 23

,
I' •• II
=7 -
' I
,\
. ,.

"
!
1 .,~
' <1
'...... ;h
18. Aerial photograph of upper Strip
 19d. Buildings

19b. Asphalt

19c. Autos
20. Nolli's Las Vegas
26

--
_""'CENT."

" ---
~I ~'"'....................
22.~ Map showing lo.catio. n of ground floor
com
mercial esta suIS hments (1961) on

three Las Vegas strrps

~
""i~'~~'
u,_

23. Illumination leve Is on the Strip

r 28

• •

iE
t=L
COMPARATIVE ACTIVITY PATTERNS:CHURCHES
/

COMPARATIVE ACTJVlTY PATTERNS: WEDDING CHAPELS

iE /
COMPARATIVE ACTIVITY PAnEANS:
24-27. Maps showing comparative activit
FOOD STORES
t d""
iE
AUTOMOBILE RENTAL
stores, Wedding chapels, auto rentals Ypat erns: IstnbutlOn of churches, food
/
-C--O- MPARATIVE ACTIVITY
PATIERNS:
30
\
 i 31

'0

\LI I, ~,

\
e ::
c

28. Map of Las Vegas Strip (detail) sh .

OWlOg every written word seen from the road

,,
<L 15

"TH. STIlIP"

29. Las Vegas street map

30. Map showing
buildings on
three Las Vegas
strips
 32

31. Fremont Street

32. Fremont Street casino entrance

;II •

kJt'W"ldi
{ 7. C
"'ODU"
, .,.,. '"'' "D'
33. A detail from an "Edward Ruscha" elevation of the Strip. Tourist maps are
made of the Grand Canal and the Rhine showing the route lined by its palaces.
 Ruscha made one of the Sunset Strip. We imitated his for the Las Vegas Strip.
34 LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE STRIP 35

not req~ired along the ~trip because interaction is by car and highway. You
distances between buildings; because they are far apart, they can be comprehended at
drwe fro~ one casmo to another even when they are adjacent be-
high speeds. Front footage on the Strip has not yet reached the value it once had
~ause dO~the distance between them, and an intervening service station
IS not isagreeable. on Main Street, and parking is still an ap- propriate filler. Big space between
buildings is characteristic of the Strip. It is significant that Fremont Street is
more photogenic than the Strip. A single postcard can carry a view of the
CHANGE AND PERMANENCE ON THE STRIP Golden Horseshoe, the Mint Hotel, the Golden Nugget, and the Lucky Casino.
A single shot of the Strip is less spectacular; its enormous spaces must be seen as
T,he rab'l' 0h£obsolescence of a sign seems to be nearer to that of an au moving sequences (Figs. 44, 45).
omo 1 e t an that of a build' Th
b h . mg. physical degenera-
0

e reason IS not The side elevation of the complex is important, because it is seen by approaching
Ione ut w at competitors d .
ar aroun d leasing system
0

y the d si
you. The traffic from a greater distance and for a longer time than the facade. The
b.gn co rnparue. s an d t h e possi0bi0li0ty of total tax write-
01llg
'operate
h
off may ave something to do ith i Th . rhythmic gables on the long, low, English medieval style, half-timbered motel
parts of the Stri the si WI It. e.mas! umque, most monumental sides of the Aladdin read emphatically across
changeable it 0 thP' algns
systeand casino
t I facades, are also the most
vi "" IS e neutr ms-mo e structures behin0 d the parking space (Fig. 46) and through the signs and the giant statue of
. .' that sur-
ve a succession of facelifts d . f
din Hotel and Casi . M ish . a series 0 themes up front. The Alad- Las Ve the neighboring Texaco station, and contrast with the modern Near Eastern
s's r no IS oorrs In front and Tudor behind (Fig. 13). flavor of the casino front, Casino fronts on the Strip often in- flect in shape
Th ga.g eatest growth has been since World War II (Figs 37-40) ere are and ornament toward the right, to welcome right-lane traffic. Modern
notIceable changes ev . .
neon-embossed arkin ery year: ~ew hotels and signs as well as styles use a porte cochere that is diagonal in plan. Brazilianoid
hind Fremont lreet ts~ru~~ures replacing on-lot parking on and be- church International styles use free forms.
and the stylisti lee agglom~rati?n of chapels in a Roman Golden Nugget Service stations, motels, and other simpler types of buildings conform in
casino ~ sequ~nc~ of piers In a Gothic cathedral, the sign general to this system of inflection toward the highway through the position and
on it to a totall as. evo ve over 30 years from a building with a form of their elements. Regardless of the front, the back of the building is
Hotel has engulfed a sYmSI'lgn-coverebduilding (Fig. 41). The Stardust styleless, because the whole is turned toward the front and no one sees the back.
. a restaurant and a s d h I0 0 The gasoline stations parade their universality
ston and has unit"d .. the... th.ree-prece fa ad . econ
h6 ote In Its expan- (Fig. 47). The aim is to demonstrate their similarity to the one at home
programmed animated neon. c e WIt 00 feet of computer-
-your friendly gasoline station. But here they are not the brightest thing in
town. This galvanizes them. A motel is a motel anywhere (Fig.
48). But here the imagery is heated up by the need to compete in the
o § THE ARCHITECTURE 0 F THE STRIP
It IS hard to think of each fla b . surroundings. The artistic influence has spread, and Las Vegas motels have
th signs like no others. Their ardor lies somewhere between the casi- nos and
and this is as it should b b m oyant casmo as anything but unique, e
d iff e , e cause good adv ti s i h 0 the wedding chapels. Wedding chapels, like many urban land uses, are not
I erentiation of the p d H er I s mg tee m que
requires form-specific (Fig. 49). They tend to be one of a succes- sion of uses a more
ro uct oweve th . generalized building type (a bungalow or a store front) may have. But a wedding-
common because they are und .h r, ese casmos have much in
perfonn similar functions; theye~:ff:rs~~e Sun, on th.e same Strip, and mont chapel style or image is maintained in different types through the use of symbolic
Street-and from othe h I am other casinos-say on Fre- ornament in neon, and the activity adapts itself to different inherited plans.
A' ..r. ote s that are t cast . ' Street furniture exists on the Strip as on other city streets, yet it is hardly in
typical hotel-casino campi no . caSInos (Figs.43).
42,
enough to the highway to be s n f contains a building that is near evidence.
yet far enough back to acco iod rom .the road across the parked cars Beyond the town, the only transition between the Strip and the Mojave
. Th '. mmo ate dnvew ' Desert is a zone of rusting beer cans (Fig. 50). Within the town, the transition is
mg. e parking In front is a token' ays, turnarounds, and park-
not obscure the building I, . .-It reassures the customer but does as ruthlessly sudden. Casinos whose fronts relate so sen- sitively to the highway turn
bulk . ISprestIge p kO their ill-kempt backsides toward the local environment, exposing the residual
of the parking along ,h 0d ar mg: The customer pays. The
to th hi ' e Sl es of t he Com I II forms and spaces of mechanical equipment and service areas.
e o te yet stays visible fro h h. P ex, a ows direct
access
back. The scales of movement m ~ e Ighway. Parking is seldom at the
an space of the highway relate to the
 37

35. Streetlights-, upper Strip

34. The order in this landscape is not obvious.

36. Upper Strip look ing north
 38

D$ VIt,<1S u9- 1905

Ir,,~f.I' ,(..f'~/I~J"! #' .. ",,,I'r (~,,,I,",~;,,,

,
37, Las Vegas, August 1905

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39. Las Vegas, Fremont Street, 19408

38. Las Vegas, Fremont Street, 1910

40. Las Vegas, Fremont Street, 19608

 43

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41. Physical change in Las Vegas
 Front Side Parts Entrance

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42. A h d I • ~
sc e u e of Las Vegas Stri h
ft _n_J'Fi
np otels: plans, sections, and elements .
> CT7
I
44

I 46. Aladdin Casino and Hotel

45. Portion of a movie

sequence traveling north
on the Strip
46 47

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r 48

LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS 49

~... {~. ..
",
.,
THE INTERIOR OASIS

"
If the back of the casino is different from the front for the sake of
visual impact in the "autoscape," the inside contrasts with the outside
for other reasons. The interior sequence from the front door back pro-
gresses from gambling areas to dining, entertainment, and shopping
areas, to hotel. Those who park at the side and enter there can interrupt
the sequence. But the circulation of the whole focuses on the gambling
rooms. In a Las Vegas hotel the registration desk is invariably behind
you when you enter the lobby; before you are the gambling tables and
machines. The lobby is the gambling room. The interior space and the
patio, in their exaggerated separation from the environment, have the
quality of an oasis.

§ LAS VEGAS LIGHTING

The gambling room is always very dark; the patio, always very bright.
But both are enclosed: The former has no windows, and the latter is
open only to the sky. The combination of darkness and enclosure of
the gambling room and its subspaces makes for privacy, protection,
concentration, and control. The intricate maze under the low ceiling
never connects with outside light or outside space. This disorients the
occupant in space and time. One loses track of where one is and when
it is. Time is limitless, because the light of noon and midnight are ex-
actly the same. Space is limitless, because the artificial light obscures
rather than defines its boundaries (Fig. 51). Light is not used to define
space. Walls and ceilings do not serve as reflective surfaces for light but
~re made absorbent and dark. Space is enclosed but limitless, because
I~Sedges are dark. Light sources, chandeliers, and the gIowing,jukebo~-
~Ike gambling machines themselves are independent of walls and ceil-
mgs. The lighting is antiarchitectural. Illuminated baldacchini, more
than in all Rome, hover over tables in the limitless shadowy restaurant
at the Sahara Hotel.
The artificially lit, air-conditioned interiors complement the glare and
heat of the agoraphobic auto-scaled desert. But the interior o~ the
motel patio behind the casino is literally the oasis in a hostile envIro~-
rnent .(Fig. 52). Whether Organic Modern or N~oclas.sical Baroque, It
Contams the fundamental elements of the classic oaSIS: courts, water,
greenery, intimate scale, and enclosed space. Here they are a .swimming
pool, palms, grass, and other horticultural importations set 10 a paved
c.ourt surrounded by hotel suites, balconied or terraced on the court
sld~ for privacy. What gives poignance to the beac~ umbrell~s a~d
chaises Iongues is the vivid, recent memory of the hostile cars pojsed m
the asphalt desert beyond. The pedestrian oasis in the Las Vegas desert
r
50 LAS VEGAS STYLES
LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS 51
is the princely enclosure of the Alhambra, and it is the apotheosis of all
the motel courts with swimming pools more symbolic than useful, the hotel. It is also a combination of styles. The front colonnade is San
plain, low restaurants with exotic interiors, and the pretty shopping Pietro-Bernini in plan but Yamasaki in vocabulary and scale (Figs. 54,55);
malls of the American strip. the blue and gold mosaic work is Early Christian tomb of Galla
Placidia. (The Baroque symmetry of its prototype precludes an inflec-
tion toward the right in this facade.] Beyond and above is a slab in Gio
§ ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENTALITY AND THE Ponti Pirelli-Baroque, and beyond that, in tum, a low wing in Neo-
BIG, LOW SPACE classical Motel Moderne. Economics has vanquished symmetry in a re-
Th,e c.asin~ in Las Vegas is big, low space. It is the archetype for all cent addition. But the new slab and the various styles are integrated by
pubhc mtenor spaces whose heights are diminished for reasons of a ubiquity of Ed Stone screens. The landscaping is also eclectic. Within
budget and. air conditioning. (The low, one-way-mirrored ceilings also the Piazza San Pietro is the token parking lot. Among the parked cars
permit outside observation of the gambling rooms.) In the past, volume rise fjve fountains rather than the two of Carlo Maderno: Villa d'Este
was governed. by structural. span; height was relatively easy to achieve. cypresses further punctuate the parking environment. Gian de Bologna's
Today, span ,IS ~asy t~ achieve, and volume is governed by mechanical Rape of the Sabine Women and statues of Venus and David, with slight
and econonuc Iimitations on height. But railroad stations restaurants anatomical exaggerations, grace the area around the porte
and shopping arcade~ o~ly ten feet high reflect as well a ~hanging atti: cochere. Almost bisecting a Venus is an Avis, a sign identifying No. 2's
tUd.e to monu.mentahty In our environment. In the past, big spans with offices on the "premises (Figs. 56-58). .
their concomitant heights were an ingredient of architectural monu- The agglomeration of Caesars Palace and of the Strip as a whole ap.
mentality (Fig. 53). But our monuments are not the occasional tour preaches the spirit if not the style of the late Roman Forum with its
de force of an Astrodome, a Lincoln Center, or a subsidized airport. eclectic accumulations. But the sign of Caesars Palace with its Classical,
The~e merely prove that big, high spaces do not automatically make plastic columns is more Etruscan in feeling than Roman (Figs. 59, 60).
archltectural ~onu~enta1ity. We have replaced the monumental space Although not so high as the Dunes Hotel sign next door or the
of Pennsylva~Ia Station by a subway above ground, and that of Grand Sh.elI sign on the other side, its base is enriched by Roman centurions,
Central Terminal remains . I th h . ", ,
. , main y (Fig. 61) lacquered like Oldenburg hamburgers, who peer over the acres
an advertIS I ng vehicle Thu Its maglllfi cent conversion to of cars and across their desert empire to the mountains beyond. Their
hi .
I
r oug
I
" when we try' our
ta Ity . m s, we rare y ac reve architectural monumen-
d kill
' ' statuesque escorts, carrying trays of fruit, suggest the festivities within
monumentahty that ex onedy anh do not go into. the traditional. and ~re a background for the family snapshots of Middle Westerners.
s.
al "" p resse co esion of the community through big-
ili
sc. e unified, symbolic, architectural elements. Perhaps we should ad.
mfit h. our cathedrals are the chapels without the nave and that apart
MasSIVe Miesian light boxes announce square, expensive entertainers
such as Jack Benny in 1930s·style marquee lettering appropriate for
rom t eaters and ball parks th ional ' . Benny if not for the Roman architrave it almost ornaments. The light
. a space f
IS ' e occ as io n c ommunal space boxes.are not in the architrave; they are located off-center on the col-
or crowds
that is big of anony . d i id a l
ti
IOn W.ith each other The b imoIus In IVI fs without explicit connec- Umns III order to inflect toward the highway and the parking.
U

alcoves combine
casino. The i;
lightinbein. t ig, ow mazes 0 the dark restaurant with
t~egeth~r and yet separate as does the Las Vegas I
Iow space. Th e Congtrolled c a sino ach ieves a new monumentality for the
s o f if .. § LAS VEGAS SIGNS
the d k I ur ces art ! iciai and colored light within
ar enc osures expand a d h . Signs inflect toward the highway even more than buildings. The big
0
if
cal limits You are I "n hum y t e space by obscuring its physi- The Las Vegas casino is a comb' , f
n
"ghts of the city at ~~g~t~ger In t e bounded piazza but in the twinkling of Caesars Palace-one f th matlO , arm. The complex
program
banqueting rooms, nigh~clUbe gra~dest-:-In~ludes gambling, dining
and
§ LAS VEGAS STYLES
 s an audltona, stores, and a complete
s~gn-independent of the building and more or less sculptural or picto-
n,al-inflects by its position, perpendicular to and at the edge of the
highway, by its scale and sometimes by its shape. The sign of the
AI'dd·' h
. III Hotel and Casino seems to bow toward the highway throug
the mflection in its shape (Fig. 62). It also is three dimensional, and
parts f " . . . 1
a It revolve. The sign at the Dunes Hotel IS more chaste: It IS on y
two. dimensional, and its back echoes its front, but it is an erection 22
~tones high that pulsates at night (Fig. 63). The sign for The Mint Hotel
n Route 91 at FremontStreet inflects toward the Casino sev~ral
INCLUSION AND THE DIFFICULT ORDER

LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS 53

blocks away. Signs in Las Vegas use mixed media-words pictures and scu
I ' ,
pt.ure-to persuade and inform. A sign is, contradictori ly, for day
seemingly incongruous advertising media plus a system of nee-Organic or neo-
and mght: The same sl?"n works as polychrome sculpture in the sun and as black
Wrightian restaurant motifs in Walnut Formica (Fig. 69). It is not an order
silhouette against the sun; at night it is a source of light. It re- volve~ by day and
dominated by the expert and made easy for the eye. The moving eye in the
becomes a play of lights at night (Figs. 64-67). It can tams .scal~s for close-up and
moving body must work to pick out and interpret a variety of changing, juxtaposed
for distance (Fig. 68). Las Vegas has the 10ngest.sIgn III the worl~, ~he Thunderbird, and the
orders, like the shifting configurations of a Victor Vasarely painting
highest, the Dunes.
S?me.slgns are hardly distinguishable at a distance from the occasional (Fig. 70). It is the unity that "maintains, but only just
high-rn- hotels along the Strip. The sign of the Pioneer Club on Fre- mont maintains, a control over the clashing elements which compose it.
Street talks. Its ~o",,:boy, 60 feet high, says "Howdy Pardner" eve'v ~O Chaos is very near; its nearness, but its avoidance, gives ...
force. "4
s~c~nds. The bIg sign at the Aladdin Hotel has spawned a little
sign w.lth s~~l1llarproportions to mark the entrance to the parking. "But such
signs! says Tom W If "Th >
. .' 0 e. ey soar m shapes before which the ex- § IMAGE OF LAS VEGAS, INCLUSION AND
rstrng vocabulary of art hi ISt ory >ISh IeIp ess. I can only attempt to supply
nameS-Boomerang M d ALLUSION IN ARCHITECTURE
> I a ern, PI> >
prra , McDonald's H a ette CUlvlhnear b Flash Gordon Ming- ' . Tom Wolfe used Pop prose to suggest powerful images of Las Vegas.
AIer t S P b " ..
Miami Beach Kidne "3 B ~m. urger ara ~la, Mint Casino Elliptical, Hotel brochures and tourist handouts suggest others (Fig. 71). J. B.
Street ,wh I b >ldY' u.Ildmgs are also SIgnS. At night on Fremont Jackson, Robert Riley, Edward Ruscha, John Kouwenhoven, Reyner
I h 0 e UI lngs are ilium> t db>
Banham, and William Wilson have elaborated on related images. For the
spot Ig ts; they are made i t ina e uf t >not throughreflection from
tubes. Amid the diversit n 0 sour~:s 0 hght by closely spaced neon like Iri architect or urban designer, comparisons of Las Vegas with others of
dl b . y, the familiar Shell and Gulf signs stand out the world's "pleasure zones" (Fig. 72)-with Marienbad, the Alhambra, Xanadu,
nen y eacons In a fa ei I dB>
three times hi h . t h
the competitiogn
a
t
r 19n an. u t III Las Vegas they reach
0 t ~ air than at your local service station to meet
e casmos.
and Disneyland, for instance-suggest that essential to the
imagery of pleasure-zone architecture are lightness, the quality of being an. ?asis in a
perhaps hostile context, heightened symbolism, and the ability to engulf the visitor in a
:
§ INCLUSION AND THE DIFFICULT ORDER
new role: for three days one may imag-
~ne oneself a centurion at Caesars Palace, a ranger at the Frontier, or a
Henri Bergson called disorder a d Jetseuer at the Riviera rather than a salesperson from Des Moines, Iowa, or an
order of the Strip is I n or er we cannot see. The emerging architect from Haddonfield, New Jersey.
the urban renewal' a camp ex order . It is no t th e easy, n>glid or d er 0 f However, there are didactic images more important than the images
megastructure It is projecth or the fashi ona bl e " tot a1 d esi>gn" of the of recreation for us to take home to New Jersey and Iowa: one is the
direcn . , on t e contrary a > if > f > irecuon

:'r
in architectural theorv- ' mall!. estanon 0 an opposite
A~IS with the Venus; another, Jack Benny under a classical pediment
acre .City, perhaps, but a kind B:oa?ac~e Clty-a travesty of Broad- predIctions
':'Ith Shell Oil. be~e him, or the g~sol.ine station beside t~e mul timil- hOn-.dollar
for the A . I vllldlcatlOn of Frank Lloyd Wright's
th e ur ban sprawl is ofmencan Th '. . h> casmo.l.I.hese show the vitality that may be achieved by an
andscape . e CommerCia l stnp Wit III architecture of inclusion or, by contrast, the deadness that results from
B
acre C·Ity'S easy mo,tCivOaul rse roada..cre C"ty >th a dOff erence.
I WI Broa dI- too great a preoccupation with tastefulness and total desigti) The Strip
d"d
separate bUildi~gs at th or eril entIfled and unified its vast spaces and ' e sca
e of the . h mg, without doubt ? shows the value of symbolism and allusion in an architecture of vast
mlllpotent automobile.
build Eac
Taliesin Fellowship with was to be deSIgned by the Master or by his spac~ and speed and proves that people, even architects, have fun with archrt~cture
that reminds them of something else, perhaps of harems or

ears III New Jersey. Allusion and comment, on the past or present or
e ,n o r oom for honk t k > >
asy Control would b e exe.
s I U
a,
gan.tle. s. But the order of0 th
.
d '.
e e xcl Usl On
y- on
t' I
I mprovIs ations. An
rC l se over S imilar III
SOn Jan vocabUlary t t h
S . . ,cer am y, of commercial
.
eI
ements the ~I ~ he W~ld West in Las Vegas, perhaps of the nation's New England fore-

vul- unlv>er- b IIJ?ay

from the mixture of see mlllg. Ie.
3 T
. om Wolfe, The KandY.Colored
NOOnday Press, 1966), p. 8.
on ~ur great commonplaces or old cliches, and inclusion of the every-
III the environment sacred and profane-these are what are lacking
tnp mcludes;
y Illcongru it
I d includes at all levels,
f
ous an uses to the mixture 0 'n present-day Modern a'rchitecture. We can learn about them from Las
~ .
angerme·Flake Streamline Baby (New York: Vegas as have other artists from their own profane and stylistic sources.
igAugust Heckscher, The Public Happiness (New York: Atheneum Publishers,
62),p.289.
 54
55

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52. C a esar s Pa lac e oa sis
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IHE ROADSIDl 53. Architectural In

INTtRlOP-v
onumentality and the roadside interior
 57

54. Caesars Palace

The trudeur that was Rome...

55. Caesars Palace tourist brochure '-' ---
r 58
60
61

--
61. Caesar PI
S a ace centurions
62. Aladdin .
SIgns
66
67

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if~, 68.Physiognomy of a typr.cal casino sign

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72
INCLUSION AND
STUDIO NOTES
«
ALLUSION IN ARCHITECTURE
Pop artists have sho h
hi wn e value f ,h Id . . § A SIGNIFICANCE FOR ing them. Don't bug us for lack
¥( text t t
0 ac ieve a new ill' 0 e 0 clIche used in a new con.
ti:Le Com eanmg_the sou . A&P PARKING LOTS, OR of social concern; we are trying
.mon uncoQl.ID.QD. Ad" P can In the art gallery-to male LEARNING FROM LAS to train ourselves to offer
cordmg to Poirier
rhyth
t
. '
"an'
rns, artifacts, associated
IOns. The m I,"
u ttudmous st I
r n in !lterature, Eliot and Joyce disp~y ao
extraord
.
1
vu nerability
WIt certain u b'
... to the idioms)
r an environments or a nn-
.
' VEGAS, A STUDIO
RESEARCH PROBLEM
socially relevant skills.

t h at there I' yes of Uly, .

t are on y mtermitt ses are so dominated by them School of Art and Architecture, Yale § SYMBOL IN SPACE BE- FORE
d
en ed pass ent sounds of] . h University, Fall 1968 FORM IN SPACE, LAS
st yre.
I »5 Pair"age f f
n h ISi as disu oyee .Inh t ed novel ..
rer certifiably;
re ers to thi mgurs e rom and a no
mimex- icked Joint authors: VEGAS AS A COMMUNICA-
seIf speaks f] IS as the "d '.
hand »7 p 0 oyee's d . ecreauve Impulse "6 Eliot him- Robert Venturi TION SYSTEM
O mg th b .
are tr d ,erhaps a fitting re ui e est he can "with the material at E1" 5, Richard P "-
'IT ' cure-, Denise Scott Brown Steven
• ?
I" p. 21, ~ys descendants ' of q em for the irrelevant works of Art that
lot s 6 Ib'd ,S. Elict» P 20.
Izenour
. hnes in "E a once mean' f 1M
ast Coker":8 mg u odern architecture are
Students:
That ura Ralph Carlson
A . Sa w.ay of puttin i Tony Fanner Ron
pe~zPhrastzc study in g t-r-not very satisfactory' eavznu .
L a worn-out p' . Filson Glen Hodges
W' I ,,,> one stzlLwith th . oetical fashion Peter Hoyt Charles
It I words and mea . e Intolerable wrestle '
ntngs. The Korn John Kranz
Poetry does not matter. Peter Schlaifer
Peter Schmitt Dan
Scully
Doug Sou th worth
Martha Wagner Tony
Zunino

T~estudio programs and work

tOPICSwere designed by Denise Scott
Brown. Portions of them are quoted in
these notes. Ex-
cerpts from writings by students
h" th .
e ei r names appended.

§ COMMERCIAL VALUES AND

COMMERCIAL METHODS
This
stud' has been a technical
la, We are evolving new
 WELCOME TO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS, FREE ASPIRIN-ASK US ANYTHING, messa,ges given by the faces and the locational-service sta-
VACANCY, GAS. of the bUl~d~ ings-the continuous tions are found on corner lots, the
All cities communicate mes- sages-functional, balconies and regularly casino is in front of the
symbolic, and persuasive-to people as spaced picture win- dows of the hotel and the ceremonial valet
they move about. Las Vegas signs hit you at the California border and Dunes saying HOTEL parki~g is in front of the casino. All
before you land at the airport. On the Strip three message sys- tems (Fig. 3) and the suburban bunga- three message systems ~re
exist: the heraldic-the signs-dominates lows converted to chapels by the closely interrelated on the ~trIp.
(Fig. 1); the physiognomic, the addition of a steeple (Fig. 4)- Sometimes they are combm.ed,
as when the facade of a casino
7. TS'. Eli
Ot Th tools: analytical tools for under- becomes one big sign (Fig. 5) or
Brace and Co' e ComPlete P stand'Ing new space and form,
8. T. S. Elio IllpanY,1958) oetns and Pta the shape of the building reflects
P.13, t,
Q ,p. 125. ys, 1909_195 0 (New York: Harcourt, and grap h' its name and the sign, in turn,
F014r
14artets IN Ie tools for represent-
ew York, H reflects the shape. Is the sign, the building
' arcOUrt B
, race and Company, 1943), ~ ~ee material under the correspond- g or the building the Sign?
eading in Part L