Stanislaus vonMoos, MartinoStierli (eds.) EYES THAT

Scheidegger&Spiess Yale School of Architecture SAW

Architecture AfterLas Vegas I Timelines andContexts

II Eyes That Saw

III On Trial: The“DecoratedShed”

IV What We Learned III 11 Robert A.M.Stern On Trial: Preface The“DecoratedShed” 13 Stanislaus vonMoosand MartinoStierli Introduction 267 Neil Levine Robert Venturiand Denise ScottBrown’s I Duck/DecoratedShedDyadinaHistorical Perspective Timelines andContexts 291 Karin Theunissen Billboarding andDirectional Spaces

33 EveBlau 325 Stanislaus vonMoos Pedagogy andPolitics: Making Placeand Learning AViewfromthe Gondola:Notes on History, from LasVegas Spectacle andModernArchitecture 67 Mary McLeod 373 ElizabethDillerand DavidAllin Wrestlingwith MeaninginArchitecture: ChainCity Learning from LasVegas 93 Valéry Didelon IV TheRevolutionisDead; LongLivethe Revolution What We Learned 106 Valéry Didelon TheLearningfromLas VegasCase(1968–79) 381 Denise ScottBrown LasVegas Learning,Las VegasTeaching II 408 VenturiScott Brown&Associates Eyes That Saw Robert Venturiand Denise ScottBrown’s Memory 419 Robert Venturi

129 MartinoStierli What Did YouLearn? LasVegas andthe MobilizedGaze 431 DavidM.Schwarz 175 KatherineSmith HaussmannBackwards PopPrecedentsand Contemporary Contexts 457 Rafael Moneo 212 BeatrizColomina ArchitectorCritic?Both/And Learning from Learning 461 Stan Allen 232 DanGraham AfterLas Vegas: Five Observations AfterVenturi on VenturiScott Brown 247 PeterFischli From Dessau to LasVegas 483 Appendix Previouspage EveBlau GatewaytoDisneyland,Anaheim, CA.PagefromCharles Moore. “You Have to Payfor thePublic Life,” Perspecta 9/10(1965). Pedagogy andPolitics: Making Place andLearningfromLas Vegas

In thelate1960s theYaleSchoolofArt andArchitecturewas one of thekey sites at whichthe trajectories of politicalactivismand Postmodern critique intersected,generatingaculturallandscape andpolitical subtextfor theculturalradicalismthatfollowedin theirwake. At Yale that collisiongenerated aseriesofprojects, themostinfluential of whichwas thestudio/seminarLearning from LasVegas,orFormAnalysisasDesignResearch, taught by Robert Venturi, Denise ScottBrown,and Steven Izenourin thefall of 1968. Butthere were many others.After Yale pres- identKingman Brewsterbrought in CharlesMoore to chair theDepartmentofArchitecturein1965, architecture students became increasinglyinvolved in urbanresearch, experiments with film,video,and communications technology,“intermedia” installations,new methodsand materialsofconstruction(includ- ingfoamand inflatable structures), andbuildingprojectsin remoteand impoverishedparts of ruralAppalachia, all of which held thepromise of newdirectionsfor thediscipline.1 This con- text is critical forunderstandingboththe milieu in which Learn- ingfromLas Vegas took shapeand thecurrentsthatshifted the

1Charles W. Moore(1925–93) waschair of theDepartmentofArchitecturefrom1965to1969 andthendeanofthe Faculties of Design andPlanningfrom1969to1970. Formore, seeEve Blau, Architecture or Revolution:Charles Mooreand Yale in theLate1960s (New Haven: Yale University SchoolofArchitecture,2001);LeslieL.Luebbers, “Place,Time, andthe Artof Architecture:The EducationofCharles W. Moore” (PhD diss., InstituteofFineArts, New York University,2001);Charles W. Moore, YouHavetoPay forthe PublicLife: Selected Essays, ed. Kevin P. Keim (Cambridge:The MIT Press, 2000); andRichard W. Hayes, TheYaleBuild- ingProject:The First40Years (New Haven: Yale University Press andYaleSchoolofArchi- tecture, 2007). IamindebtedtoPeter Rose andDan Scully fortheir insights andmemoriesof Yale in thelate1960s,and to Danfor hishelpful readingofthistext. An earlierversion of this essay appeared in Log,no.38 (fall2016).

33 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics critique of Modernism from aquestioning of establishedcodes work establishedhim as asignificant educator anddesignerin of practice to afocus on signsasgeneratorsofradical newforms theearly 1960sand ledtothe invitation to head thearchitecture of society, culture, andsubjectivity. department at Yale.Italsoinformedafundamental tenetofhis In 1968,asMoore reported to Brewster, Yale was“riding architecture andpedagogy. thecrest of thepresent wave.” Theschoolwas held to be the In 1962 Moore, with hisBerkeleycolleaguesDonlyn “notably turned-onfree-wheelingplace where It’s Happening,” Lyndon,Sim Vander Ryn, andPatrick J. Quinn, publishedthe attracting “first-rate” studentsand “aninordinateamount” of firstinaseriesoftextsonplace, titled “TowardMakingPlaces,” positivemedia attention(ProgressiveArchitecture wasdubbedthe in J. B. Jackson’smagazine Landscape.Inthe openingparagraphs “YaleAlumniMagazine” becauseitfeaturedYalestudent work so they setout thefundamental premise: “The basicfunctionof frequently).2 Yale’s popularity andnewsworthiness,Moore sug- architecture ...pastthe provisionofmerelyshelter,pastthe gested, were duefirst to thequality of thestudentsand second expressivemanipulationofmaterials or even of space...is “tothe absenceofrestrictionsontheir imaginationand their thecreation of place, of what SusanneLangercallsan‘ethnic involvement, [rather] than to anyhighlyorganized regimen.”He domain.’ This creation of placeamounts at firsttotakingpos- also observed that “our profession is,atthispoint in time,dra- sessionofaportionofthe earth’ssurface.Then, architecture maticallydevoidofany impressive—or useful—bodyofteachable beinganact,thatprocess of takingpossessionisabstracted.” 5 theory.Thismay turn outtobeadisguised boon,asit leaves us Thearchitectural act, Moorelater elaborated,is“theordered embarrassingly free to deal with rapidlydeveloping problems of extensionofman’sideaabout himselfinspecificlocations on theurban environment;itcertainlyhas theeffectofheightening, thefaceofthe earth.”6 This conceptofplace as specific and andspeedingthe wavesofsignificant change.” 3 culturallydeterminedrelates to anumberofphilosophical and When Moorewas recruited by Yale he hadbeenchair of the cultural discourses of thetime, includingJackson’s “human architecture department at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, geography,” thepoeticphenomenology of Gaston Bachelardand forthree years. There hisobjectivehad been tobroaden thecur- MauriceMerleau-Ponty,and thediscourses of psychoanalysis,all riculumtoinclude “everything from computerstooperations of whichMoore referenced in histeaching. ButMoore’s signal research; mathematical,social, andall kindsofacademictheo- contribution wastolinkthese discourses specifically to archi- ries,” nottomakeitmoretechnocraticbut to enable architects to tectureand urbanism andtowhathesaw as thearchitect’s single be “moresubtle, more supple,morecomplex,instead of rigid.”4 most importanttask: to make place in an increasingly “aspatial Mooreworked closelywithJosephEsherickonthe curriculum electronic world.”7 andrecruited ChristopherAlexander andarchitecturehistorians Twoworks in particular precipitated Moore’sappointment SpiroKostofand NormaEvenson to thefaculty.But thecentral at Yale.His most importanttextonthe subjectofplacemaking, focusofMoore’s teaching,writing,and practice whileatBerkeley “You Have to Payfor thePublicLife,”was publishedinYale’s wasthe development of what he called a“theory of place.” This Perspecta in 1965.InitMoore sets outtoconsidermonumental

2Charles W. Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,DepartmentofArchitecture,SchoolofArt andArchitecture,tothe Presidentand FellowsofYaleUniversityfor theAcademicYear1967–1968. 5DonlynLyndon, CharlesW.Moore,Patrick J. Quinn, andSim Vander Ryn, “Toward 3Ibid. Making Places,” Landscape 12,no.1(Autumn 1962): 32. 4Charles W. Moore, oral history interviewbySallyWoodbridge, December 28,1984, tran- 6Moore,“Plug It in Ramses,and SeeifItLightsUp, Because We Aren’t GoingtoKeepIt script,ArchivesofAmericanArt,Smithsonian Institution. Moorebegan teachingatBerkeley Unless It Works,” Perspecta 11 (1967):34. in 1959. 7Ibid.,37.

34 35 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

architecture as part of theurban sceneinCalifornia, achallenge offeredtohim by editor Robert A.M.Stern(Fig. 1).“Perspecta’s editorssuspected,Ipresume,thatIwould discoverthatin Californiathere is no contemporary monumental architec- ture,orthatthere is no urbanscene,” Moorewrites.8 Rejecting Perspecta’s termsofreference, he asserts that monumentalityisan act, notathing, “not aproductofcompositionaltechniques, ... of flamboyanceofform, or even of conspicuousconsumption of space,time, or money.” 9 Rather, monumental and urban,he claims,are adjectives that describe individuals“giving up some- thing, spaceormoney or prominence or concern, to thepublic realm.”The “function” of that actistomarkaplace that has more than privateimportanceorinterest.10 On onelevel Moore’sassertionscan be read as areprise of themonumentality discourseofthe 1940s.11 But, significantly, he shifts theterms of discussion from architectural form to politi- cal space:Where,heasks, is thepublic realminacitylikeLos Angeles, whereall property andspace areprivatizedand hardly anyonegives anything to thepublic?The closestthing LosAnge- leshas to atraditionallyconceived public realm, Mooreproposes, is Disneyland,which he describesasanersatzurbanismthatlooks andfeels like therealthing butlacks politicalspace,and there- fore does notallow forpolitical experience.InDisneyland there is nowhere“to have an effectiverevolution.”12 Theonlyspaces in LosAngeles conducivetorevolutionare thefreeways. Just as theCommunardstooktothe streetsofParis in 1871,Angelenos wishingtostage arevolutionincontemporaryLos Angelesmust take to thefreeways. Alternatively, Mooresuggests, they could

8Moore,“YouHave to Payfor thePublicLife,” Perspecta 9/10 (1965):58. 9Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 SeeJosep LluísSert, FernandLéger,and SigfriedGiedion,“Nine Points on Monumental- ity,”inGiedion, Architecture,You andMe: TheDiaryofaDevelopment (Cambridge:Harvard University Press,1958),48–52;Giedion,“TheNeedfor aNew Monumentality,”inNew Architectureand City Planning,ed. Paul Zucker (New York:Philosophical Library, 1944), 549–68. SeealsoChristiane C.Collins andGeorgeR.Collins, “Monumentality:ACritical Fig. 1ViewofMainStreet,Disneyland.FromCharlesMoore.“YouHave to Pay Matter in Modern Architecture,” Harvard Architecture Review 4(1984). forthe Public Life,” Perspecta 9/10(1965). 12 Moore, “You Have to Payfor thePublicLife,”64.

36 37 Pedagogyand Politics

“emplanefor NewYork to organize seditiononMadison Avenue; word wouldquickly enough getback.”13 Thefreewaysare not only thetruepublicrealm inthe “floatingworld” of cars and houses “adriftinthe suburban sea” of LosAngeles; they also meet all of Moore’scriteriafor monumentalityasthe actofplacemak- ing: youhave to payfor them,theyare forpublicuse,and they arestrongand exciting forms. They are, he claims, themarkers “foraplace setinmotion, transforming itself to anotherplace.” They couldbethe real monumentsofthe future,“structures big enough andstrongenough,oncetheyare regardedaspartofthe city,tore-excite thepublic imaginationabout thecity”14 (Fig.2). Like all of Moore’s texts(andhis demeanor generally),the tone is heavilyironic. This ironyundercuts theseriousness of theargumentand deflects critical judgment.Isthe fact that you have to payfor thepublic life good or bad? Does Moorereally believethatfreewaysholdthe promiseofgeneratinganew public realm? Everyclaim comeswithanironicspinthatundercuts its sincerity. Theintention is to complicatethe issues;toopenthem to interpretation, to doubt,tofurther investigation; to provoke andstimulate,ratherthanprescribe.Asdidacticmethods,irreso- lutionand open-endedness canbehighlyeffective.Moore’s prov- ocationtappedintothe contentiousmoodthenroiling university campuses across thecountry.“YouHave to Payfor thePublic Life” makesanumberofpointsthatmay also have resonatedwith Yale’s senior administration,particularlythe recognitionthatthe traditionalcitynolongerexistedinmid-century America, that it wasnecessaryfor architects to thinkdifferently aboutthe social andphysicalenvironmentsofcities—especiallyabout thearchi- tectural implications of suburban sprawl andemergingtech- nologies of communicationthatwerethentransforming urban environments in theUnitedStates—andthatcontemporary LosAngeles mightwellbethe future towardswhich American urbanism wasmovinginthe 1960s.

Fig. 2“The freewayscould be thereal monuments of thefuture.”Pagefrom 13 Ibid., 63. Charles Moore. “You Have to Payfor thePublicLife,” Perspecta 9/10(1965). 14 Ibid., 59,97.

38 39 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

Thesecondproject to consolidateMoore’s ascendancy as ateacher anddesignerwas Condominium I at theSea Ranch (1963–65), oneofthemostwidelypublishedand copied buildings of the 1960s(Figs.3,4).15 Builtonanexposed site 85 milesnorth of San Francisco, in awildand powerful coastal landscapeofcliffs, bluffs, andwindblasted standsofMonterey cypress,Condominium I’s angularshed-roofed formsengagethe region’svernacularwork- ingbuildings (barns,and mining andtimberingsheds). At the same time Mooreand hispartnersatMoore,Lyndon, Tu rnbull, andWhitaker (MLTW)infused the“casualshantyidiom”ofBay Region architecture with anew formal discipline, adiagrammatic clarification of space that forMoore derived from LouisKahn’s conceptofinterrelated served andservant spaces.16 Inside,the conventionsofthe domestic plan arediscardedinfavor of an organization wherein theactsofhabitation—gathering, cook- ing, dining,sleeping,bathing,and so on—are collected in highly abstract freestandingstructures paintedinboldprimary colors that recall Constructivistsculpturesofthe 1920s. TheSea RanchactualizesMoore’s conceptofarchitectonic placemaking. At thetimeitseemed to signal an exciting new turn in American architecture towardsaModernism that was resolutelyabstractbut also attentivetosite, materials, andlarger urbanand ecological issues;thatembracedculturaland natu- rallandscapes, thevernacularand theavant-garde,highart and popularculture,technologicalinnovationand phenomenology; andthatmostofallconceived of architecture andthe purview of thearchitectasencompassingall scales of design,fromthe individual object to theterritory.Not surprisingly,these same engagementsand concerns wouldalsoinformthe curricular changesMoore implemented at Yale.

15 Spacedoesnot allow forfulltreatment here of theevolution of theproject,the rolesof collaborators, includingJosephEsherickand Moore’spartnersatMLTW—DonlynLyndon, WilliamTurnbull, andRichard Whitaker—orits importantecologicaland environmental objectives.For abibliography on theSea Ranch, see E.J. Johnson, ed., CharlesMoore:Build- ings andProjects, 1949–1986 (New York:Rizzoli,1986), 283–98. Fig. 3, 4The SeaRanch,CA. Condominium1,MooreLyndon Turnbull Whitaker 16 SeeMoore,GeraldAllen,and DonlynLyndon, ThePlace of Houses (New York:Henry architects, withthe collaboration of Lawrence Halprin,1963–65. Holt, 1974).

40 41 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

distinguishableplace in theworld,and giving himthe Pedagogy chancetoarrive at aperceptionofthe physicalorder of things is ataskwhich requires intellectand thehighest In his1969book NewDirectionsinAmericanArchitecture,Robert level of creativity. A.M.Sterncharacterizes thechangeinYale’sarchitecturepro- Thearchitect,who mayoncehave seenhimself gram under Mooreasaswing“from an emphasis on shapeand standingslightlyapart from society, is nowwrapped up elaboration(as wasthe caseunder hispredecessor,PaulRudolph) in some of itscentral problems.Tosolve theseprob- towardsaconcern forthe usefulnessofarchitectureinrelationto lems he needstodiscover andmakemaximum useof theproblemsoflifeinour less-advancedareas,inour cities,and phenomenal amountsofinformation,withnoguide in ourbackwater locales.”17 Whiletrue, this wasnot thewhole buthis ownpoint of view to resolveconflicts or estab- story. Moorewas committedtothe primacyofdesignand to lish ahierarchy of importancesamong thephysicaland retainingYale’s“ties with themostexcitingarchitectural devel- emotionalfunctions whichcondition even thesimplest opmentsinthe NewYork Metropolitan area,” nottomention inhabited structure.19 its“glamorousimage.” At thesametimehewanted to make the school “whatithas notbeenand what Ithink it should be:acen- ThecorecurriculumMoore designed with Kent Bloomer inher- terfor academic andintellectualdevelopment on thefrontiers ited many of thephenomenologicaland spatial preoccupationsof of aprofessionwhich stillseems peculiarly vagueabout where Moore’sCaliforniawork. Theformalexercises were conceived itsfrontierslie.” 18 Mooreindicated what that mightentailinhis in termsof“design verbs”(seeing, exposing, timing,making). revision of thedescription of Yale’s architecture degree program Theperformance of theseactswas immediate, andtheir effi- (presumablyoriginallywritten by thepreviouschair,Rudolph) cacy wasdeterminedcollectivelybyfaculty andstudents. Spatial in theuniversity bulletin in 1967: problems were conceivedinterms of “verbs of use” (bathing, sleeping, meeting, eating,etc.) andculminated in thedesignof To thearchitect fallsthe satisfaction of seeing the ahouse.20 Students were also encouraged to spendtimeoutside ideasand attitudesofhis societytakephysicalform, thestudio, exploringNew Haven’srailways,dockyards,facto- to become thecontainer forman’s activities andthe ries,urban neighborhoods, andindustrialedges,aswellasthe imprintofhissociety andhimself on thefaceofthe vernacularand monumental architecture of NewEngland and earth. In today’speriodofexplosivegrowththisis fartherafield.21 Looking, sketching,painting,photographing, amorechallengingactivitythanever before.Order- filming, andreading broadlywereconsideredessential compo- ingthe earthbecomes in some respects more difficult nentsofthe core educationofthe architect, as were sleeping and andmoreexcitingthanarriving at themoon. Provid- eating in buildingsofinterest.Under Moorethe school began ingfor thephysicalneedsofmore andmorepeople offeringnew coursesinexperimentalfilmmaking,photography, withoutdestroyingthe individual’srelationtothe animation,games,and computer applications.22 StudiosatYale land,maintaininghis importantsense of having some 19 Bulletin of Yale University School of Artand Architecture,series63, no.1(January1,1967):19. 17 Robert A.M.Stern, NewDirectionsinAmericanArchitecture (New York:GeorgeBraziller, 20 In thesecondyear, projects became largerand more programmatically complex. 1969), 78. 21 Kent Bloomer,inconversationwiththe author,November 2000. 18 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1965–1966. 22 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1966–1967 and 1967–1968.

42 43 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

increasingly focused on urbanproblems, low-cost housing, com- munity design,advocacyplanning, andstudies of inner-city neighborhoodsinNew Havenand Manhattan. Urbandesign, Mooreinsisted,was notaseparate fieldfromarchitecture. “The design school, to be useful,musthave adjacencytoknowledge aboutcitiesand theenvironment.” 23 He involved students in hisown attempts to provide affirmativeurban environments forNew Haven’spredominantly AfricanAmericanurban poor, includinghis owncontroversialpublic housingproject,Church Street South(1966–69).24 Moore’snew curriculumalsofosteredthe explorationof connectionsbetween architecture andgraphicswiththe enthu- siastic collaborationofAlvin Eisenman,the school’s director of graduate studies in graphicdesign.25 Mooreinvited designersto teachcourses that engaged thethree-dimensional spatial poten- tial of graphicdesign.26 Oneofthe most successfuland widely publicized projects wasaone-week design problemdirectedby BarbaraStauffacher Solomon, aSan Franciscographic designer whohad paintedthe interiorsofMoore andTurnbull’sAthletic Center at theSea Ranch in 1966 andwhose work combined “supersizedAbstractExpressionist [fieldsofcolor] ...withhard- edgedgraphicsfromSwitzerland andgot ...supergraphics.”27 Thepurposeofsupergraphics, Stauffacherinsisted, “istoclarify, nottoconfuse....Supergraphics aredifferent from theold, two-dimensionalgraphics, andthey’re more helpfultoarchi- tects. ...Theyare areinforcement of architecture.” 28 This had

23 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1967–1968 and 1969–1970. 24 Aproject with alongand troubledhistory (itwas firstoffered to Mies vander Rohe,who walked away becausethe budget wasgrossly inadequate),ChurchStreetSouth—despite the communal facilities, walkways,park, piazzas,and commercial spacesitprovided—failed to achieveanaffirmative urbanenvironment.Isolatedfromthe downtowncoreofNew Haven andstarved forfunds, thescaled-back andpartiallyrealizedschemewas reviledand vandal- ized almostfromthe moment of itscompletion—asoberinglesson forbothMoore andthe school aboutthe sociospatial complexity of effectiveurban design. 25 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1967–1968. 26 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1966–1967. Fig. 5MoonrakerAthleticCenter, SeaRanch, CA,1966. Moore Lyndon 27 BarbaraStauffacher Solomon, unpublishedmanuscript. Turnbull Whitaker architects.Interior view with“supergraphics” by Barbara 28 StauffacherSolomon, “Bathhouse Graphics:MakeitHappy Kid,” ProgressiveArchitec- Stauffacher Solomon. PhotobyJim Alinder. ture 48 (March1967):158.

44 45 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics been herchallengeatthe Sea Ranch, wherethe interior spaces from sevensimultaneouslyoperating projectors.Inthe second of theAthleticCenter, shrunk by budget cuts,becamecramped part,called“Pulsa,”large banksoffluorescent tubeswerepro- andconfusing.Her supergraphics—red, blue,yellow, green, pur- grammedtocreateaflashing,multicoloredenvironment.The ple, andblack stripes, circles, dots,arrows, andletters painted at effect of spatial disorientation washeightenedbystrobelights superscale across overlappingwall planes,aroundcorners,and andintense bursts of electronic sounds.Argus effected atotal up stairs—managed both to clarify theorganization by provid- abstractionofthe environment, creating spacesthatcould notbe ingacoherentsystemofsignage andtoanimate andvisually understood visuallyand hadtobeexperienced bodily.Complex, expand theinteriorspaces(Fig. 5).AtYaleshe assigned students dynamic, andfragmented, theabstractedpsychedelic spacesof to useonlypainttospatiallyalter theinteriors of theArt and Arguswere seen as thearchitectonic correlativeofthe radical Architecture Building’s elevators. Theproject washailedbyAda actionsofthose whowereattemptingto“creativelydestroy the Louise Huxtable as a“productive protest” against“thehugehack system.”30 symbolsoftheEstablishment ...givingthemahighlycreative raspberry.” “Thisworkisgoing somewhere,”she claimed, “even if it is to astraightdead-end. That won’tmatter, becauseinthe Politics process it will have openedimportant newdoors of vision and experience.” 29 Increasingly,architectural experimentationatYaleintersected Thelargestand most ambitiousoftheintermediaspatial with thegrowing politicization of campuses nationwide.Moore’s explorations at Yale in 1968 wastitled, in full,“ProjectArgus: chairmanshipcoincided exactlywiththe defining politicalevents AMultipleMontage from theGriggsCollectionofClassic of that half-decade:the radicalization of thecivil rights move- Film andanExperimentinLight andSound Environment in ment andthe escalation of theVietnam War. In 1965 thefirst andaroundthe DepartmentofArchitecture’sNew Structure anti-war teach-insand draftcardburningstookplace on U.S. in theExhibitionHall of theArt andArchitectureBuilding.” collegecampuses.Oppositiontothe warintensified as thecon- Namedafter themany-eyed monsterofmythology,Argus was flictescalated andseemedincreasinglyunwinnable. Forthe first amixed-media installation of pulsatinglights, electronic sounds, time in vividcolor, nightly TV news reportsshowed U.S. sol- andfilmclips spooledoncontinuousloops andprojected in and diersfighting, beingwounded,and dying. By thespringof1968 onto amassivebridge-like structurethatspanned theexhibition more than 200student protests hadtaken placeonmorethan area.DesignedbyMoore, Bloomer, andFelix Drury, andcon- 100university campuses (Fig.6). Thebrutalcrackdown on anti- structed by second-yearstudentsfromsteel tubing andplywood warprotest at theDemocraticNationalConventioninChicago panels sheathed in reflective mylar, Arguswas approximately in August 1968,which wascovered live on network TV,further 60 feetlong, 30 feet high,and 10 feet wide,withoccupiable polarizedAmericansociety alongnew generational lines. The spacesonmultiplelevels. Atwo-partperformance wasstaged civilrightsmovement followedasimilar trajectory of increasing on April25, 1968.Inthe firstpart, films, includingearly com- ediesofCharlie Chaplin, BusterKeaton, Harold Lloyd, and 30 “Architecture (Modernand Progressive):Charles Moore,” Dialogue with Laurel Vlock, Mack Sennett, were projected onto Argus’sreflectivesurfaces Laurel VlockCollection, Marvin K.Peterson Library, University of NewHaven. Theinflu- ence of György Kepesonthe construction of intermedia environments, includingArgus,is significant. SeeGyörgy Kepes, LightasaCreative Medium (Cambridge:Carpenter Center for 29 AdaLouiseHuxtable, “KickedaBuildingLately?,” TheNew York Times,January 12,1969. theVisualArts,Harvard University,1965).

46 47 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

radicalization andviolence. Theassassination of Malcolm X in February 1965 wasfollowedbythe Wattsriots in August.In 1966 theBlack Panthers were founded. Majorraceriots broke outinNewarkand Detroit in thesummer of 1967.The spiraling violence andracialtension culminatedinthe dispiritingspringof 1968,whenthe assassinationofMartinLutherKingJr. in April wasfollowedbythe assassination of Robert KennedyinJune. This wasthe politicalbackdroptothe changes Mooreput in placeduringhis firstthree yearsatYale. He andother fac- ulty attemptedtorespond to theseevents—andtopressurefrom studentstobring politics into thestudio—by allowing (without actuallyendorsing)protest in theschool andsupportingnew student-led activist organizationssuchasthe BlackWorkshop,an interdisciplinaryAfrican American student organization formed in 1968 that developed community-design andpublic-education projects in NewHaven, Newark,and othereastern cities,and TheArchitects’ Resistance,which organizeddemonstrations, publishedpositionpapersexposingunethical practiceswithinthe profession, andsupported thepublicationofNovumOrganum, astudent broadsheet “for expression, confrontation, anddebate” on issuesofarchitectureand city planning.31 Despitethe administration’s efforts to quellthe incipient rebellion, studioswerecanceledand classes disrupted or given over to self-questioning discussionsabout theproperstudy of architecture andplanning. That fall,efforts at reorganiza- tion were largelyunsuccessfulinpacifying themoodofcon- frontation edged with violence that seemed to have overtaken theschool.32 First-semesterdesignproblems, includinghealth

31 NovumOrganum,no.1(November 14,1968). TheArchitects’Resistance (TAR)was formed by acontingent of Yale architecture andplanningstudentsand practitionersinNew Haven, NewYork,Boston, andWashington, D.C. whohad walked out of aregional AIA meetingin NewHavenin1968, protesting the“lack of moraland politicalconcern within thedesign professions.” TAR also organizeddemonstrationsprotestinguniversity policies.One such policy wasthe lack of financialaid forstudentsofthe SchoolofArt andArchitecture, which in 1968 garneredamock“burial of an unknownA+A student,” whose“casket” waslowered Fig. 6StudentrallyonNew HavenGreen to protestthe Vietnam Warand into theBeineckeLibrary sculpturecourt to symbolize thedeath of theartsatYale. demand thereleaseofthe BlackPanthers. NewHaven, CT,May 1970. 32 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1968–1969.

48 49 EveBlau Pedagogyand Politics stations in RaleighCounty, West Virginia,and ashopping center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania,wererejected as sociallyirrele- vant andthe studioswere canceled.Itwas into this climateof developing chaos that Robert Venturi, Denise ScottBrown,and Steven Izenourparachuted theirstudio/seminar, Learning from LasVegas.

Learning from LasVegas at Yale

With itsfocus on advertising,consumerism,parking lots,bill- boards,and otherfeaturesofthe commercial strip, theLearn- ingfromLas Vegasstudiowas an anomaly, farremovedfrom thestudents’ vocalizedinterestinsocial-minded,antiestablish- ment activism.“When we came to teach at Yale,” ScottBrown laterrecalled,“we said this projectmustbereally‘agin’the governmenttoget thestudentsinterested.” 33 Thestudioitself wasframedas“an attempttofindphilosophiesofarchitectural urbanism andvocabulariesofurbanformmoresuitedtothe conditions andproblemsofamass,mobilized societythanare thephilosophiesof‘totaldesign’ (i.e., totalarchitecturalcontrol) of theearly Modern movement.Emphasisuponrelevance and involvement.” 34 Thepitch—combining arejectionofModern- istcertaintieswithacommitmenttosocialactivism—evidently worked:ninearchitecture, twoplanning, andtwo graphics stu- dentswereadmitted to theclass (othersnodoubtapplied). Yale provedthe idealenvironment forVenturi,Scott Brown, andIzenour’s project. Moore’snotoriously “loose and unspecifiedgovernance,”and thefreedom it affordedfaculty and students, fosteredanacademicenvironment remarkablyopento thepropositionthatthere were valuable architecturallessonsto

33 DeniseScott Brownquoted in Robert Venturiand Denise ScottBrown:Learningfrom LasVegas: Supercrit #2,ed. KesterRattenburyand Samantha Hardingham (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2007), 113. Fig. 7Learning from LasVegasResearchStudio.“Space,Scale,Speed, 34 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Chairman,1968–1969. Symbol.” Illustration from Learning from LasVegas (1972).

50 51 EveBlau Pedagogyand Politics be learnedfromLas Vegas.35 As Moorewrote to Brewster, his own“elusivegoals”for architecturaleducationweresharedby Venturiand involved “a broadening of therange of things in oursociety that we look at andcareabout,inorder to develop aless exclusive, more responsive,[and] thereforemoreeffective architecture.” 36 Furthermore, unlike themanystudios rejected fortheir lack of social relevanceinthe tumultuousfallsemester of 1968,LearningfromLas Vegasoffered clearlyarticulated ped- agogical andmethodologicalgoals andhad an explicitly instru- mental architecturalagenda.37 In fact thelessonstobelearned from LasVegas hadalready been identified by Venturiand ScottBrown in theirarticle “A Sig- nificancefor A&P ParkingLots, or Learning from LasVegas,” publishedseveral months before thestudiotookplace.They includedthe observations that “space is notthe most important constituentofsuburbanform,”that“thesignismoreimportant than thearchitecture,”that“billboards arealmostall right,”that “spatial relationshipsare made by symbolsmorethanbyforms,” that “the graphicsigninspace hasbecomethe architecture of this landscape,”and that “communication dominatesspace as an element in thearchitecture andinthe landscape” (Figs. 7, 8).38 Theworkofthe studio wastodevelop “graphic meansmoresuit- able than thosenow used by architects andplanners, to describe ‘urban sprawl’urbanismand particularly thecommercialstrip.” 39 In thestudionotes,published in thesecond 1977 editionof Learning from LasVegas,thisisspelled out: “Weare evolving newtools:analyticaltools forunderstandingnew space andform, andgraphic toolsfor representing them.Don’t bugusforlackof

35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 37 DanScully, astudent in thestudio/seminar, noted that Venturiand ScottBrown “knew what they wanted, butwewerealsofreetofindwhatwewanted.”Personalcommunication with theauthor, September12, 2011. 38 Robert Venturiand Denise ScottBrown,“ASignificancefor A&PParkingLots, or Learn- ingfromLas Vegas,” ArchitecturalForum 128(March1968): 37–43. Reprinted in Venturi, ScottBrown,and Steven Izenour, Learning from LasVegas,2nd ed. (Cambridge:The MIT Press, [1972] 1977), 6, 8, 13. Fig. 8“Upper Strip, driving north.”Photo takenduring theLearning from 39 ScottBrown andVenturi,prefacetothe firstedition, Learning from LasVegas,xii. LasVegas ResearchStudio,Las Vegas, NV,1968.

52 53 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics social concern; we aretryingtotrain ourselvestooffer socially relevant skills.” 40 TheLearningfromLas Vegasstudiotapped into much of theworkalready underway at theschool—investi- gationsintothe popularlandscape,urban andrural vernaculars, graphics andarchitecture, urbandesign, andnew media—as well as thepracticeoffield research.The studentsbrought afinely tunedsensibility andaparticularset of skills to theexamination of theLas VegasStrip,especiallyits graphicelements. In thestudionotes Venturi, ScottBrown,and Izenour includedinstructions regardinggraphic techniques:“We feel that we should construct ourvisualimage of LasVegas by means of acollage made from LasVegas artifactsofmany typesand sizes....To construct this collage, youshouldcollect images, verbal slogans, andobjects. ...Bearinmindthat, however diverse thepieces, they must be juxtaposed in ameaningfulway, forexample, as areRomeand LasVegas in this study[presum- ably theA&Particle].Documentthe American piazza versusthe Roman, andNolli’s Rome versusthe Strip.”41 Studentsbegan by usingthe NolliMap’s graphiccodeoffigureand ground,mass andvoid, to mapthe Strip’sundeveloped land, asphalt, autos, buildings,ceremonialspaces, andlight levels(Figs.9,10).They then layered thosemappingsinasingledrawing to analyzethe relationshipsamong them.Other techniques, most notablycol- lage,wereemployedaswell, andthe studentsmined informa- tion from avariety of sourcesincludingtelephone companymaps (from1954, 1961,and 1968), whichtheyusedtoplotthe location of arange of businesses on or near theStrip.42 Themostinteresting analytical graphictechnique developed in thestudiowas aseriesofsectional diagrams that attempted to visualizescalarand spatial relationshipsamong signs, build- ings,billboards, andother objects on theStrip as they were per- ceived from amovingvantage point. Thestudiodeveloped aset

40 Venturi, ScottBrown,and Izenour, Learning from LasVegas,73. Italics in theoriginal. 41 Ibid., 83. Fig. 9Learning from LasVegas ResearchStudio.“Nolli’s MapofRome.” 42 AccordingtoDan Scully,manyofthe mappingtechniquesweredeveloped by Douglas Collage (reproducedinblack and whiteinLearning from LasVegas, 1972, Southworth. Personal communicationwiththe author,September 12,2011. Fig. 19), 1968.

54 55 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

of graphiccodes to represent therelationship betweenthe Strip’s twovisualorders:thatofthe highway andthatofthe buildings andsigns alongsideit(Fig.7). Thecombination of thetwo orders constituted thedialectical structureofthe Strip: “continuity and discontinuity, going and stopping,clarity and ambiguity,cooper- ation and competition, community and individualism.”43 Those relationshipsare explored in “Map of LasVegas StripShowing EveryWritten Word Seen from theRoad,”anevocatively illeg- ible representationofthe visual chaos of theStrip that analyzes it as asysteminwhich “communication dominatesspace as an elementinthe architecture andinthe landscape.”44 Themosteffective andconsequential techniqueusedinthe studio to capturethe logicofthislandscape andits architecture involved film,amediumthatincorporatesspace, movement,and time.The idea to usefilmoriginated with the studentswho had been experimentingwiththe medium as part of Moore’scur- riculum,bothtodocumenturban landscapes andtogenerate intermedia environments such as ProjectArgus.InLas Vegas they affixedacameratothehoodofacar andfilmed, in asin- gleshot, what they describedasa“deadpan”representation of theStrip itself.The conceptofthe deadpanasastraight- forward, uninflectedstyle of depictionderived from artist Ed Ruscha, whosework Venturiand ScottBrown cite as providing “the particular intellectual andartisticunderpinnings”oftheir LasVegas project.45 Yet, neitherthe film,which thestudents titled LasVegas Deadpan,nor Ruscha’s owncompositeimagesare trulyunmediated,for each mediaformathas itsown logicthat both shapes andreveals itssubject.Inthe case of Ruscha’s Every Building on theSunsetStrip (1966),the subject is topographical (see MartinoStierli’s essayinthisbook, esp.pp.129–173). Recall- ingalayout common in mid-nineteenth-centuryillustrated

43 Venturi, ScottBrown,and Izenour, Learning from LasVegas,20. 44 Ibid., 8. Fig.10 Learning fromLas VegasResearchStudio.“Upper Strip, undeveloped 45 Venturiand ScottBrown,prefacetothe firstedition, Learning from LasVegas,xii.The stu- land.” Nolli’s methodapplied to theLas Vegas Strip. From Learning from dionotes also referenceobservationsonmovement perceptionoffered by Donald Appleyard, LasVegas, 2ndedition (1977). Kevin Lynch, andJohnR.Myer in their1964book TheViewfromthe Road.

56 57 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics street directories, such as John Tallis’s LondonStreetViews,the andthusobliterates thetense of decisiveaction.50 Itsspatiality book’s very format—a 25-footaccordion-folded photomontage andtemporality preclude politicalexperience. showingbothsides of thestreetinpanoramic elevation, labeled This last lesson mayexplain whyMoore’s attitude towards with each buildingaddress andcross street—reflectsthe work’s theLearningfromLas Vegas projectturnedfromhis charac- topographical-indexicalfocus.46 teristic ironic detachment to critical equivocation, leadinghim Thestudio’sfootage filmed in asingleshotfollows adif- to declarein1978, “I never learnedanythingfromLas Vegas.”51 ferent logic: that of theunbroken “stream”—the continuous Space, ScottBrown asserted, “isnot themostimportant con- spatiotemporalflow—of videoortelevisionratherthanfilm. stituent of suburban form.Communication across space is more Alfred Hitchcock drew thedistinction betweenthe medialogic important.”52 ForMoore communicationinarchitecturewas of film andtelevisionclearly:“Unlike cinema,” he said,“with a“haptic as opposed to avisual” operation—“an actconsum- TV thereisnotimefor suspense,you canonlyhave surprise.” 47 mated by thewholebody, musclesaswellaseyeballs.”53 What Videoisamediumofcontinuousflowthatprivilegesaccident wasatissue forMoore wasembodiedcommunication.Inthe cur- andchance; it is always on thelookout forthe unexpected.As riculumheput in placeatYale—from thefirst-yearcorestudios aresult, Marshall McLuhanargued, itsmessagehas no durable andStauffacher’s elevator design problemtoProject Argus—the substance: it flowsbyinastreamand is immediatelyreplaced.48 proprioceptive dimensions of communicationwereexplored LasVegas Deadpan revealsthe spatiallogic of theStrip itself.But througharchitectural acts that grantedagency to theirusers. in this instance therepresentationaltechnique,ratherthanthe By contrast, Learning from LasVegas (likeStern’s 1965 Per- medium,contains themessageofLearningfromLas Vegas.49 specta issue) remained embedded in thepostwar monumentality Spaceiskey to architecturalsignification buthereitonlyregis- discourseand thequestions it posed aboutarchitectural form. ters in termsofdistancefromthe eye. Perceivedpurelyvisually, Venturiand ScottBrown went to LasVegas in search of monu- theStrip is scaleless, aspace withoutdiscernibledimensions, mentalityand they founditinthe large-scaleilluminated signs beginning, or end. This is especiallytrueinthe nighttimefoot- andbillboardsofthatsuburbanlandscape,where “the sign is ageofLasVegas Deadpan in whichonlythe illuminated signs more importantthanthe architecture.” 54 Theaspatial monu- andlightsofthe Stripare visible. Theenvironment is reducedto mentalitycelebrated in Learning from LasVegas is theantithesis aflatplane,and an opticalexperienceinwhich neitherspace nor of Moore’sown conception of monumentalityasaspatial setting time hasany depth. As such it instantiates thedisembodied space forcollectiveaction. of “real-time”flows that (asPaulVirilio pointedout)containsthe present andabitofthe immediatefuture, butnoneofthe past,

50 Paul Virilio, TheVisionMachine (Bloomington:Indiana University Press,1994),66. 46 Iamindebted to MarianaMogilevichfor herinsightsintothe topographicalcharacter of 51 Moore, quoted in Barbaralee Diamonstein, AmericanArchitectureNow (New York:Rizzoli, Ruscha’s work.For adiscussion of thenotionofthe “deadpan”see Stierliinthisvolume. 1980), 130. 47 Richard Schickel, Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense (New York:Winstar Home Enter- 52 ScottBrown,“LearningfromPop,” Casabella 359–360(December 1971): 17. tainment, 1999), videocassette. 53 “Charles MooreonPostmodernism,” ArchitecturalDesign 47 (1977):255.Moore,“Per- 48 Marshall McLuhan, UnderstandingMedia:The Extensions of Man (New York:McGraw- sonalStatement”inTheWorkofCharles W. Moore,ed. Toshio Nakamura,A+U ExtraEdition Hill,1964), 292. McLuhanalsonoted that “todaytechnologies andtheir consequentenviron- (Tokyo:A+U Publishing Co., 1978), 8. mentssucceedeachother so rapidlythatone environmentmakes us awareofthe next.” 54 Venturi, ScottBrown,and Izenour, Learning from LasVegas,13. It is almostasif, in this 49 This is theunacknowledged lesson of LasVegas Deadpan andthe signal contribution of the text,theytookupthe charge that Sternhad givenMoore in Perspecta 9/10to“consider mon- Yale students, DanScully andPeter Schlaifer in particular,who shot it. umentalarchitecture as part of theurban scene.”

58 59 EveBlau

Lipstick (Ascending)

Thecontradiction betweenthese twopositions wasbrought into sharpreliefbytheirjuxtapositionatYaleinthe late 1960s. It washighlighted in 1969 by oneofthe era’smostimportant civicmonuments,orpolitical acts of monumentality: Claes Oldenburg’s Lipstick (Ascending)onCaterpillarTracks.The projectwas initiated,planned,and assembled by agroup of art andarchitecturestudentsled by Stuart Wrede(Figs.11, 12). Inspired by Constructivistworks of the1920s,including Vladimir Tatlin’s Towerand El Lissitzky’sLenin Tribune, Wredehad approached Oldenburgabout thepossibility of constructingamonumentfor Yale’s campus in February 1969. Oldenburgresponded with enthusiasm andpresented several models, including Lipstick.Studentsset up anonprofit organi- zation,the Colossal Keepsake Corporation, dedicated to the construction anddonation of monumentstoeducationaland charitableinstitutions. (The charter provided forthe possi- bility that if Yale refused themonument, it wouldbedonated to anothereducational institution, most likely Harvard.) More than fiftystudents, faculty, alumni,and friendsof Yale (includingMoore,PhilipJohnson,James Stirling, and VincentScully) contributed fundstofinance theproject,and Oldenburgdonated histimeand effort.The Colossal Keep- sake Corporationcontracted with LippincottInc.ofNorth Haven, fabricatorsofoutdoor sculpture, to construct Lip- stick.OnMay 15,1969, a24-foot-tall, 3,500-poundlipstick tube mountedona13-by-14-foot caterpillartrack base was installed on Beinecke PlazainfrontofYale’s centraladmin- istrativebuilding. Oldenburg’soriginalconceptionwas that Lipstick wouldbearemote-controlled motorized work that wouldcrawl into positionand serveasaplatformfor speeches. Personswishing toaddress thepublicwould mountthe Lip- Fig.11 Stuart Wrede’sessay “Deed of Gift”onClaes Oldenburg’s Lipstick stick deck andpumpupthe inflatable vinylshaft to getatten- (Ascending), to be erectedonthe Yale Campus.Page from NovumOrganum 7 tion.After thespeechthe stickwould slowly deflate. (Shortly (May 1969).

60 61 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

afterthe installation, theinflatablevinyl shaftwas replaced with apermanently rigidmetal shaft.)55 Theproject’s relation to Venturiand ScottBrown’s concept of monumentality(in termsofthe decorated shed)isbothobvi- ousand multifaceted.The references to advertising,sexuality, andmilitaryhardwarecombine symbolsofglamourand sexwith thoseofpowerand martialbelligerence. Thescalarmanipula- tionsare aPop Artmove,inverting hierarchiestoinducecritical reflectiononthe status quo. Butheretheyare turned to political ends;the monument is asoapbox whosepurposeistoinspire and enable collective acts andtogeneratepolitical space.According to thecriteriaMoore elaborates in “You Have to Payfor thePub- licLife,”itisaplace where arevolutioncould takeplace. That is preciselywhathappenedatYaleayearlater,when protests over theVietnam Warand thetrialsofBlackPanthers BobbySeale andErickaHugginsinNew Havenculminated in MayDay,amass demonstrationonthe NewHavenGreen in earlyMay 1970 callingfor anationalstudent strike to protest thewar anddemandthe releaseofthePanthers(Fig. 6).The National Guardwas called in,abomb exploded in IngallsRink, andcrowdsweredispersed with tear gas. Disaster wasaverted when KingmanBrewsterdecided to welcomethe demonstrators with food andshelter,ratherthanclose theuniversity down and surround it with armedguardsashehad been urged to do.56 Meanwhile, underMoore’s “loose andunspecified”modeof governance, theDepartmentofArchitecture hadbegun to spin outofcontrol.Inthe springof1969, shortlyafter theinstallation of Lipstick,conflictamong administration,faculty,and students amid accusationsofracismled to thepermanent closureofYale’s

55 Lipstick wasrebuilt andinstalled in MorseCollege at Yale in 1974.See Hans Dickel, ClaesOldenburg’s Lipstick(Ascending) on CaterpillarTracks, Yale 1969:Kunst im Kontextder Studentenbewegung (Freiburg:Rombach, 1999); ClaesOldenburg andCoosjevan Bruggen, Large-ScaleProjects (London: Thames andHudson, 1995). On Yale studentinvolvement, see Judith AnnSchiff, “The Lipstick:FromAnti-Warto‘Morse Resource,’” Yale AlumniMaga- zine (February2000). Fig.12 ClaesOldenburg. Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks. 56 Geoffrey Kabaservice, TheGuardians: KingmanBrewster, HisCircle, andthe Rise of the Colorlithograph withadditionsbyhand, 1972. Liberal Establishment (New York:Henry Holt,2004), 40.

62 63 EveBlau Pedagogy andPolitics

DepartmentofCity Planning.InJuneamysteriousfiregutted thetop floors of theArt andArchitectureBuilding, forcingthe school to relocate to temporaryquartersfor much of thefol- lowing academicyear(Fig.13).The administrative structurewas reorganized, andMoore wasappointed dean,apositionheheld through1970. Lipstick andother explorations of thelate1960s were with- outissue at Yale.Inhis last annual reporttoBrewster, Moore abandonedthe ironic tone of hisearlier reports:“Fewannual reports,Isuspect,havedescribedayear so given over to exam- ination, from within and from without, as this onehas been forthe FacultiesofArchitecture andCityPlanning. ...Our strength,Ibelieve, is that we arestill adesignschool. ...This seems to me especially critical at ajuncturewhenarchitecture schoolsacrossthe countryinthe search forrelevance have abdi- cated theirstrength in design.The work of ourfaculty andstu- dentsoffer[s], Ithink,impressivecurrent evidence of ourhealth in spiteofeverything in this critical area:itisworth hangingon to.” 57 He admitted to having “placed excessivehopeinthe notion that awiderange of personal freedom forfaculty andstudents to follow theirown dictates wouldspeed thesearchfor ourelu- sivegoals.” 58 ButMoore’s freewheelingpedagogyalsoopenedthe door to theeminently “teachable theory”ofVenturi andScott Brown’sdecoratedshed, whichdisplaced notonlyarchitectural meaningfromthe buildingtothe sign butalsothe agencyof architecture itself from thespace of thecitytoManfredoTafuri’s boudoir.59 In 1968 thestudentsinVenturi andScott Brown’s studio soughtthe agency of architecture in thesuburbanland- scapeofthe LasVegas Strip. In theprocess they discovered the media-logic of an emergingurban spatiality; thedisembodied spatialityof“real-time” flowsand of continuous “streaming”that obliteratesthe architectonicspace of effectiveaction. Sinceits

57 Moore, Annual Reportofthe Dean,1969–1970. 58 Ibid. Fig. 13 The Artand Architecture BuildingbyPaul Rudolph with fire brigade 59 SeeManfredoTafuri, “L’Architecture dans le Boudoir:The Language of Criticismand trying to getthe June 1969blaze under control. NewHaven, CT,1969. theCriticism of Language,” trans. Victor Caliandro, Oppositions 3(1974): 37–62.

64 65 EveBlau publicationin1972, Learning from LasVegas hasbeenheralded Mary McLeod as an originatingmomentofthe Postmodern turn in American architecture.Today,however,itisthe transitional moment and senseofcrisisthatpervadedit—when cities became thetesting Wrestlingwith MeaninginArchitecture: ground forneoliberaleconomicpolicies, anditbecameclear that Learning from LasVegas thetransformationofmid-century urbanenvironmentssignaled notonlythe diminished social agencyofarchitecture, butalso theevacuationofpolitical spacefromthe city itself—thatseems to resonate most strongly. In theprefacetothe second editionofLearning from LasVegas, publishedin1977, Denise ScottBrown provocativelydeclared, “Las Vegasisnot thesubject of ourbook. Thesymbolism of architecturalformis.”1 Sheand herfellowauthors,Robert Venturiand Steven Izenour, hadfoughtwith MIT Pressto getthe bookredesignedinamoremodestformat; it wasnow stripped of allits color(except forthe cover), of nearly athird of itsimages, and, most significantly, of itsseductive Modernist graphics (Figs.1, 2).The lastsection aboutthe firm’s work was also eliminated.These changesnot only made thebookmore affordable butalso, as ScottBrown explained,emphasizedthe book’s original aimtobea“treatiseonsymbolism.”Tounder- scorethatpoint theauthors addedasubtitle, “The Forgotten SymbolismofArchitectural Form.” 2 Thedifferences betweenthe book’s twoeditionsmight be seen as part of ashift in sensibilitythatoccurredinarchitecture

1Denise Scott Brown, prefacetothe revised edition, Learning from LasVegas:The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form,byRobertVenturi,DeniseScott Brown, andStevenIzenour, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977), xv.All subsequentcitations of Learning from LasVegas in thesenotes aretothisedition unless specifiedotherwise. 2 Forconvenience,henceforth, Irefer to theauthors as Venturiand ScottBrown.Although Steven Izenourcontributed significantlytothe publication, especiallythe book’s graphicele- mentsand photographs, accordingtoScott Brownthe book’s writtencontent wasprimarily the result of discussionsbetween Venturiand herself. ScottBrown told me that Venturi’snameis listed firstbecause he wrotethe firstdraft of themanuscript(except theportionsinPart I related to thestudioprogram), butthatmanyofthe subsequentrevisions to that draftwerehers(Scott Brown, telephoneconversationwiththe author,January 14,2010).See also theoriginaltyped manuscript in theVenturi,Scott BrownCollectioninthe ArchitecturalArchivesatthe Univer- sity of Pennsylvania(hereaftercited as VSB Collection, AAUP). Note,however,thatIzenour, whoservedasateachingassistantfor the1968Las Vegasstudioand helped prepare thestudio handouts, mayhave played amajor role in thediscussionsamong theauthors of thebook Mean- inginArchitecture,editedbyGeorgeBaird andCharles Jencks.(Seenote15, below.)

66 67