DUE September 18, 2014

Journal Article Analysis Summary

I am a Monument, On Learning from Las Vegas.

I am a Monument  was written by Aron Vinegars and On Learning from Las Vegas was written by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steve Izenor. Aron Vinegar was the one who reviewed the importance of architectural in 1972. Vinegars titled his book with the signifier I am the Monument after he examined the subtitle On Learning from Las Vegas. The authors of LFLV then came together to include Vinegars title words on a printed billboard sitting atop of a building to announce that it is in fact a monument. Vinegars 2008 book released in paperback for both signifiers owe thanks to Rene Magritte’s painting for reinforcing the distinction between words and the objects to which they refer.

                In 1972 the original book was published by three teachers from Yale University. The students and architects traveled to Nevada City to see what they could do to build the environment to influence popular culture.  Rather than bemoan the anti-intellectual commercially driven nature of the Las Vegas strip, the group embraced and elevated its very character. Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenor introduced a new dichotomy in defining the building that express their function, meaning with decorated sheds that can change the meaning by the sheer switch of a sign.

                The new look of the Las Vegas strip, then called ugly ordinary, was developed to help define post modernism in architecture and was presented in heroic forms. Vinegars theories explored the ugly and the ordinary architecture and found a new way of interpreting and  uncovering  its relevance for the early twenty-first century. The LELV becomes more than a historical polemic which stands as a theoretical treatise with those who appreciate and study the building environment. He begins his investigation through the lens of skepticism which allows him to question the sincerity and the seriousness of LELV.

                Acknowledging his own debt to philosopher Stanley Cavell, Vinegar redefines the modern duck and the post- modern decorated shed not as dichotomy, but as a way to understand the others. Mr. Vinegar is particularly intrigued by the graphic differences between the first and second editions of LELV. Muriel Cooper designed the initial publication in 1972 and Denise Scott Brown redesigned the more modest and stripped down revised edition in 1977, both published by MIT press.

                Ms. Cooper approach to the book’s layout to present a visual equivalent to the experience of the Las Vegas strip, Ms. Scott Brown’s was to refocus the book’s emphasis from the visual interpretation to the conceptual content of the text. The former design was duck and Mr. Vinegar postulates that the true understanding of LELV can be understood only in a comparison of the two visualizations. This parallels the conclusions he reaches about the current relevance of the book. David Hickey suggests that while America is a very poor lens through which to view Las Vegas, Las Vegas is wonderful lens trough which to view America. LELV has held our attention for 40 years and the reason why Mr. Vinegar has delved so deeply into the ideas of architecture sign, symbol and meaning.

                In my own words I will say this article was very important and very educative and shows how architect can change our surroundings. Today Las Vegas has become the heart of America and is well known for the beauty of its architectural and visual designs. Examples are Caesar’s Palace, Venetian, Excalibur, Wynn and others. All came together to make the face of Las Vegas we all see today.

Mr. Vinegar’s important re-analysis of Learning From Las Vegas and I am a Monument, likewise reinforces the relevance of reassessing developments in architectural forms and meanings.

Reference

Levine, S. (2012). I am a Monument, On Learning from Las Vegas. The Journal of Popular Culture, 45(6), 1337-1339.