LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS

Venturi Scott Brown’s Learning from Las Vegas introduces the decorated shed as a new archetype characteristic of the Las Vegas Strip. Caesars Palace is the epitome of this type located on the Strip. Conceived as a place that briefly lets visitors relish in the glamour of Roman nobility, it certainly delivers. The word best used to describe the hotel and casino would be “excess.” An excess of activity, history, events, and people. In its 50 years, the site boasts events like hockey matches, musical performances, various films and near-death experiences. The drawing shows this excess by filling up the page with activity, both mundane and noteworthy, with the inclusion of three versions of the perpetually changing sign. Certain events corresponding to these signs then begin to set the stage and create a loose timeline tracking the trajectory of the sign in conjunction with its history, like Evel Knievel’s jump in 1967 or Muhammad Ali’s final match in 1980. The framing of the overall image is a rather self involved one, where the sign points to itself and the activity within. The drawing also includes flamingos as a little nod to the frequently changing Flamingo hotel sign that appears in almost every recorded photograph of the Caesars Palace sign.

Meander

Meander was a form finding project with two overarching ideas: erosion and the slow meandering journey in contrast with the quicker one. The design focused on two modes of circulation: A slow circulation that meanders about the central core and a faster one within the mass from which this former circulation is carved out. At moments these two begin to interact which evident in the scenographic drawing on the next page. This continuous section shows the journey taken from entrance to roof garden by the primary circulation. At points, this circulation begins to interact with the central circulation which is visible in the drawing’s negative space. The wormseye on the left further shows the role the central circulation has within the project and how it eventually begins to interact as the exterior circulation erodes away at it