Title: Learning from Las Vegas
Subtitle: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form
First published: November 1998
Description: Upon its publication by the MIT Press in 1972, ***Learning from Las Vegas*** was immediately influential and controversial. The authors made an argument that was revolutionary for its time -- that the billboards and casinos of Las Vegas were worthy of architectural attention -- and offered a challenge for contemporary architects obsessed with the heroic and monumental. 

***Learning from Las Vegas*** begins with the Las Vegas Strip and proceeds to "Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the Decorated Shed," on symbolism in architecture and the iconography of urban sprawl. As Scott Brown says in her introduction, the book "upended sacred cows ... would not bad-mouth bad taste, and redefined architectural research."
Subjects: Symbolism in architecture, Architecture, Architecture, united states, Architecture--nevada--las vegas, General & miscellaneous architectural history & criticism, History and criticism, Nonfiction, Design, Urbanism, Art, Cities, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, History, Theory
Places: Nevada, Las Vegas