Learning From Las Vegas

Learning from Las Vegas created a healthy controversy on its appearancein 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-aggrandizingmonuments. This revision includes the full texts of Part I of the original, on theLas Vegas strip, and Part II, "Ugly and Ordinary Architecture, or the DecoratedShed," a generalization from the findings of the first part on symbolism inarchitecture and the iconography of urban sprawl. (The final part of the firstedition, on the architectural work of the firm Venturi and Rauch, is not included inthe revision. ) The new paperback edition has a smaller format, fewer pictures, and aconsiderably lower price than the original. There are an added preface by ScottBrown and a bibliography of writings by the members of Venturi and Rauch and aboutthe firm's work.