Date posted: May 11, 2008

Still Learning from Las Vegas

On my first visit to Las Vegas I couldn’t care much for it. On my second visit I indulged in everything, well almost everything, I had loathed on my first trip. It doesn’t get any more artificial and commercial than Las Vegas.

Arriving at night on the I-15 from Los Angeles remains a fascinating experience. After driving through the desert for hours on end, suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, there is this glittering city. It makes no sense and that’s what I like about it.

Las Vegas is still shaped by the Strip. Since the 1950s the number of casinos and hotels has dwindled while the size of those remaining has increased. Today the Strip is dominated by a few large corporations, MGM Mirage, Harrah’s Entertainment, Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands, which own multiple resorts and casinos.

If you walk along the Strip you will notice that the entrances to the casinos sometimes merge with the public space. One moment you’re walking on the pavement, the next moment you may or may not be within the confines of Caesar’s Palace or the Venetian. Once inside it can be difficult to find the exit. There are no clear signs or straightforward paths that lead you directly to the exit. You have to make your way through the slot machines and blackjack tables.

Behind the casino hotels are large multi-storey car parks. Move one zone further away from the Strip and you find cheap low rise apartment complexes, where condominiums and one or two bedroom apartments can be rented per month. This is where entertainers, call girls and temporary staff at the hotels and casinos live. Beyond this zone there are supermarkets and shopping malls. Here you can also find trailer parks where the lowest paid employees live. At the outer edges of Las Vegas there are various gated communities.

Las Vegas is a city in perennial transition. Up until last year it was one of the fastest growing cities and economies in the U.S. Over time the emphasis has shifted away from gambling. In the 1990s Las Vegas tried to reposition itself as a family destination. But families don’t spend much money.

In recent years Las Vegas has emerged as the convention capital of the U.S. Every year thousands of conventions and trade shows are held in the resorts and at the Las Vegas Convention Center, from World of Concrete to PMA and the Adult Entertainment Expo and numerous medical and pharmaceutical conferences. The hotels have tapped into the burgeoning market for conventions by offering up-market rooms and everything from stylish clubs and theatres to high-end restaurants for clients on expense accounts. Las Vegas currently rivals New York as the gourmet capital of the U.S. It makes little sense since all food has to be flown in.

In "Learning from Las Vegas" (1972/77) Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown analyzed the various stages in the development of Las Vegas. Initially signs were put up at the roadside to tempt drivers-by to park their car and come inside. There’s an interesting, undated photo on page 37, which shows the Strip as it was in the 1960s: a road lined up with neon signs.

As Venturi and Scott-Brown write "A typical hotel-casino complex is near enough to the highway to be seen from the road across the parked cars, yet far enough back to accomodate driveways, turnarounds, and parking. The parking in front is a token: It reassures the customer but does not obscure the building. It is prestige parking: The customer pays. (..) Parking is seldom at the back." (p. 34)

Since the publication of "Learning from Las Vegas" parking spaces have been moved to the back of the hotels and casinos. If you arrive by car at the front entrance, or rather, side entrance, valet parking staff will take care of your car. The areas in front have been occupied by ever more elaborate attractions, from "little Venice" at The Venetian to the fountains in front of the Bellagio and the gardens and beaches at Mandalay Bay. Today it is no longer the sign that tempts drivers-by, but the themed attractions that tempt passers-by. The Strip has become less road and more pedestrian zone.

In "Las Vegas after its Classic Age" (Domus, November 1996) Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown argue that there is a danger that Las Vegas becomes an exotic theater rather than an actual place. But why should this be a danger? At The Treasure Island one of the shows takes place in front of the hotel, transforming public space into an urban scenography. The show itself mirrors the transformation of Las Vegas. In its first incarnation The Sirens of TI was a family show with an emphasis on theatrical elements. Today it’s more of an R&B show with a leading role for the sexy girls.

As Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown observed at some point in its development the building itself became a sign: the Excalibur looks like a fairytale castle. The projects that are currently being built reflect the global shift towards the use of contemporary architecture as an element of style, class and spectacle. For the CityCenter Las Vegas, currently under construction and set to open in 2009, MGM Mirage signed up Foster and Partners, Studio Daniel Libeskind and Rafael Viñoly among others.

The project brief states that "CityCenter’s stunning retail and entertainment experience – The Crystals – will be an inviting neighborhood featuring high-end retail, dining and entertainment venues that together form the core of this urban metropolis." (..) "An experiential environment where visitors will enjoy a day of shopping within the world’s most extraordinary brands or an afternoon of people watching over a sumptuous meal".

Here, as at the Bellagio, the Wynn and other new or revamped resorts, we see how Las Vegas is still showing the way. Luxury brands are the new museum pieces. People watching is the new theatre. But unlike museum pieces luxury brands can be touched or even tried on. They are out of reach, but within touch. And whereas performers on stage are part of another, imaginary world, people in shopping arcades, restaurants, clubs and swimming pools are real.

Napkin Nights Las Vegas celebrating people watching.

Economic Troubles Affect the Vegas Strip, The New York Times, May 6, 2008.