Learning from Las Vegas : The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form

by Venturi, Robert; Brown, Denise Scott; Izenour, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780262720069
• ISBN10: 026272006X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1977-06-15
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Learning from Las Vegascreated a healthy controversy on its appearance in 1972, calling for architects to be more receptive to the tastes and values of "common" people and less immodest in their erections of "heroic," self-aggrandizing monuments. This revision includes the full texts of Part I of the original, on the Las Vegas strip, and Part II, "Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the Decorated Shed," a generalization from the findings of the first part on symbolism in architecture and the iconography of urban sprawl. (The final part of the first edition, on the architectural work of the firm Venturi and Rauch, is not included in the revision.) The new paperback edition has a smaller format, fewer pictures, and a considerably lower price than the original. There are an added preface by Scott Brown and a bibliography of writings by the members of Venturi and Rauch and about the firm's work.

Author Biography

Robert Venturi is an award-winning architect and an influential writer, teacher, artist, and designer. His work includes includes the Sainsbury Wing of London's National Galler; renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; dozens of major academic projects; and the groundbreaking Vanna Venturi House.

Denise Scott Brown is an architect, writer, and planner. She and Robert Venturi are founding principals of the influential architectural firm Venturi, Scott Brown, and Associates (VSBA), whose work and ideas have influenced generations of architects and planners.

Steven Izenour (1940-2001) was coauthor of Learning from Las Vegas (MIT Press, 1977) and a principal in the Philadelphia firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc (VSBA). His most noted projects at VSBA include Philadelphia's Basco showroom, the George D. Widener Memorial Treehouse at the Philadelphia Zoo, the Camden Children's Garden, and the house he designed for his parents in Stony Creek, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition	p. xi
Preface to the Revised Edition	p. xv
A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas
A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas	p. 3
Commercial Values and Commercial Methods	p. 3
Billboards Are Almost All Right	p. 6
Architecture as Space	p. 6
Architecture as Symbol	p. 7
Symbol in Space before Form in Space: Las Vegas as a Communication System	p. 8
The Architecture of Persuasion	p. 9
Vast Space in the Historical Tradition and at the A&P	p. 13
From Rome to Las Vegas	p. 18
Maps of Las Vegas	p. 19
Main Street and the Strip	p. 19
System and Order on the Strip	p. 20
Change and Permanence on the Strip	p. 34
The Architecture of the Strip	p. 34
The Interior Oasis	p. 49
Las Vegas Lighting	p. 49
Architectural Monumentality and the Big Low Space	p. 50
Las Vegas Styles	p. 50
Las Vegas Signs	p. 51
Inclusion and the Difficult Order	p. 52
Image of Las Vegas: Inclusion and Allusion in Architecture	p. 53
Studio Notes	p. 73
Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the Decorated Shed
Some Definitions Using The Comparative Method	p. 87
The Duck and the Decorated Shed	p. 88
Decoration on the Shed	p. 89
Explicit and Implicit Associations	p. 90
Heroic and Original, or Ugly and Ordinary	p. 91
Ornament: Signs and Symbols, Denotation and Connotation, Heraldry and Physiognomy, Meaning and Expression	p. 92
Is Boring Architecture Interesting?	p. 93
Historical And Other Precedents: Towards An Old Architecture	p. 104
Historical Symbolism and Modern Architecture	p. 104
The Cathedral as Duck and Shed	p. 105
Symbolic Evolution in Las Vegas	p. 106
The Renaissance and the Decorated Shed	p. 106
Nineteenth-Century Eclecticism	p. 107
Modern Ornament	p. 114
Ornament and Interior Space	p. 115
The Las Vegas Strip	p. 116
Urban Sprawl and the Megastructure	p. 117
Theories Of Ugly And Ordinary And Related And Contrary Theories	p. 128
Origins and Further Definition of Ugly and Ordinary	p. 128
Ugly and Ordinary as Symbol and Style	p. 129
Against Ducks, or Ugly and Ordinary over Heroic and Original, or Think Little	p. 130
Theories of Symbolism and Association in Architecture	p. 131
Firmness + Commodity Does Not Equal Delight: Modern Architecture and the Industrial Vernacular	p. 134
Industrial Iconography	p. 135
Industrial Styling and the Cubist Model	p. 136
Symbolism Unadmitted	p. 137
Form La Tourette to Neiman-Marcus	p. 138
Slavish Formalism and Articulated Expressionism	p. 138
Articulation as Ornament	p. 139
Space as God	p. 148
Megastructures and Design Control	p. 148
Misplaced Technological Zeal	p. 150
Which Technological Revolution?	p. 151
Preindustrial Imagery for a Postindustrial Era	p. 151
From La Tourette to Levittown	p. 152
Silent-White-Majority Architecture	p. 154
Social Architecture and Symbolism	p. 155
High-Design Architecture	p. 161
Summary	p. 162
Appendix: On Design Review Boards And Fine Arts Commissions	p. 164
Bibliography	p. 167
Credits	p. 190
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