{"id":8407,"date":"2018-01-09T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?p=8407"},"modified":"2018-01-08T18:24:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T22:24:24","slug":"book-review-the-strip-las-vegas-and-the-architecture-of-the-american-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2018\/01\/09\/book-review-the-strip-las-vegas-and-the-architecture-of-the-american-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review &#8211; The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/spacingvancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/features\/book-reviews_feature-VAN.gif\" width=\"600\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Author: Stefan Al (The MIT Press, 2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first time I visited Las Vegas, I was quickly taken aback at the structures. I\u2019d just returned home a week earlier from a trip to the Atacama desert in Chile, and the two landscapes were more eerily similar and egregiously contrasting than I could have imagined. As I walked the Strip, I was struck by the fact that my sense of scale was completely off, and as I walked, nothing seemed to get closer, as the scales of the signs and facades, statues and ornamentation were unlike any I\u2019d ever seen before. It was fascinating in its complexity, and I read quite a few books on Vegas after that, but opening up\u00a0<em>The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream<\/em>\u00a0by Stefan Al was the first comprehensive architecture-based history lesson I\u2019d read on the iconic desert highway. Al\u2019s book is an exhaustive yet accessible look through what made Vegas what it is today, and is a comment on how the Strip has influenced the rest of the world\u2019s architecture.<\/p>\n<p>Before diving into the content of the book, I\u2019d love to highlight the formatting as one of my favourite aspects. The large 8&#8243; x 10&#8243; pages allow for full size historical photographs and reproductions of blueprints and posters\u2014in keeping with the idea of Vegas being a highly visual experience. The subheadings within each chapter provide great breaks and help to jump back to a specific area for quick referencing. The quirkiness of the subheading titles\u2014\u201cCasino Suburbanism\u201d, \u201cAmerican Babylon\u201d, \u201cDisney \u00c0 La Vegas\u201d to name a few\u2014are a wonderful pause in themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The book itself is broken into nine sections, with insightful essays as bookends\u2014opening with <em>Las Vegas as America<\/em> and ending with <em>America as Las Vegas<\/em>. The basic tenet of the introduction is perfectly summed up by the last line which sets the stage for the argument presented in the book: \u201cLas Vegas is a microcosm of America.\u201d The theory that runs through the book is that as American values and desires changed, so has the Strip. Vegas was there with cutting edge ideas to refine and recalibrate, until, as noted by the title of the conclusion, America (and the world) has learned much and grown from the ideas presented first in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>The pieces between these two essays are the seven sections related directly to Vegas\u2019 history through architectural periods: Wild West (1941-1946), Sunbelt Modern (1946-1958), Pop City (1958-1969), Corporate Modern (1969-1985), Disneyland (1985-1995), Sim City (1995-2001), and <em>Starchitecture (2001-Present).<\/em>\u00a0These periods correspond highly with influential events in American culture, such as the rise of the atomic bomb, Disneyland\u2019s rapid fire success with their amusement park and unique style, as well as the rise of Starchitecture in the US and around the world. What began as a prohibition fuelling the Neo-Wild West quickly transformed and transformed again, until the overarching result was a constantly shifting landscape that is fluid in its design.<\/p>\n<p>The focus of this fantastic book is not solely on architecture. Interior design, marketing, and sign designers are all given their fair due (good and or bad). In the conclusion, Al writes that \u201cas outrageous as <em>The Strip<\/em>\u2019s excesses may seem, it has always been the ultimate manifestation of a quintessentially American practice: marketing.\u201d Vegas has had to remain current and ahead of the times to survive as a desert city fighting regulation, the environment and, at times, the entire United States, to consistently remain relevant.<\/p>\n<p>Overall,<em> The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream<\/em> is a wonderfully interesting and fun ride through one of the world\u2019s strangest locations. Stefan Al has done it great justice, creating an amazing collection of images and historical anecdotes that will delight readers from many realms.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><em>For more information on <strong>The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream<\/strong>, visit the MIT Press\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/books\/strip\">website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Jeremy Senko<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0is happily lost in the world of theoretical architecture and design. He is forever a student at heart, consistently reading, experiencing and learning about the world he inhabits. More specifically, he works as an Interior Designer in Vancouver and plays an active part in bettering the environments we live in.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Stefan Al (The MIT Press, 2017) The first time I visited Las Vegas, I was quickly taken aback at the structures. I\u2019d just returned home a week earlier from a trip to the Atacama desert in Chile, and the two landscapes were more eerily similar and egregiously contrasting than I could have imagined. As<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2018\/01\/09\/book-review-the-strip-las-vegas-and-the-architecture-of-the-american-dream\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Book Review &#8211; The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8146,"featured_media":8412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,417,422,426],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-history","category-neighbourhoods","category-streetscape"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book Review - The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream - Spacing National<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2018\/01\/09\/book-review-the-strip-las-vegas-and-the-architecture-of-the-american-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review - The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream - Spacing National\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: Stefan Al (The MIT Press, 2017) The first time I visited Las Vegas, I was quickly taken aback at the structures. 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