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# American architectural expression in Las Vegas
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/american-architectural-expression-in-las-vegas/
- Published: 2006-11-22T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:16:45.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By JODI SUMMERS*

Oh, the things architects and builders used to get away with. When Abbott Kinney and Charles Looff set about building pleasure piers along the Southern California coast, do you think there were city authorities telling them how to do it? No, they were entrepreneurs with an idea. Can you imagine if a building like the Looff Hippodrome went before the planning commission now? It would take months of architectural modification before the planning commission and architectural review boards would approve such a structure.

Just think about the laughs the local architectural review boards would get if a subdivision developer wanted to build a 500-foot-long sign on the side of a hill. Suppose they proposed to build each 50-foot-high letter out of telephone poles, pipes and sheet metal and light it with 10,000 unshaded 40-watt bulbs. In the new millennium, no city would approve a plan like that; but in 1923, developers S.H. Woodruff and Tracy Shoults built a sign to advertise their 500-acre housing development, called Hollywoodland. In 1949, the sign’s last four letters were removed leaving the “Hollywood” sign.

As time progresses, our ideas of what’s aesthetically right or wrong can change. Remember the recently destroyed Santa Monica Library? In 20 years from now, someone will say that building was a shining example of post mid-century modernism. If you see postcards of the previous library — a charming Spanish Revival building — you’d realize that it is the kind of property we landmark now.

Lately the city has taken to the novel concept of saving facades, such as the Lorimar Bowl at 507 Wilshire. Deemed one of the few remaining examples of commercial streamline moderne style that once thrived in the Santa Monica, the city required that façade be saved, as a superstructure goes up behind. Or, take a look at the Rapp Saloon/Old Town Hall at 1438 Second St. This one-story structure was the first masonry structure in Santa Monica, and has a high-rise growing out of it. Just wait and see what happens to the Mayfair Theater. Thank goodness we’ve saved the Sears building intact.

Santa Monica is trying to avoid demolition mistakes made when great cities such as New York demolished the first Pennsylvania Station or when San Francisco tore down the Fox Theater. These properties were destroyed because we did not understand their historical significance. In 1963, when the Pennsylvania Railroad began demolishing Penn Station, the building was 53 years old — the equivalent of a structure built in 1953.

“How many people do you know who would regard a building of this era … as worthy of preservation?” asks real estate historian and columnist Arrol Gellner. “Suppose that this preservation would also cost a lot of money — perhaps more than a replacement structure. Now what are the odds of survival? Viewed in this context, the destruction of Penn Station and a thousand other long-lamented landmarks doesn’t seem so inexplicable. In fact, without extraordinary vigilance, it’s just as likely to happen again in our own time.”

Is the “Googie” commercial architecture of local Zucky’s Deli worth saving? What about the Bayshore Bowl? The Western Dental Building on Lincoln? The original style mission-fronted Taco Bell like the one on Washington Blvd.? How about the last remaining cell phone tower?

Just about every state has unique man-made structures that would never be able to get built today — from Mount Rushmore to the Statue of Liberty, to local favorites such as the Tail of the Pup and Randy’s Donut. Could we build a Santa Monica Pier sign like the one that currently exists? Not a chance.

> “Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves,”

> “Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect’s task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise,”

> “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness,” — observed Hearst Castle + Marian Davies beach house architect, Julia Morgan. notes British author Gilbert K. Chesterton. declared Adolf Loos, Austrian Architect. observes world renowned architect Frank Gehry

> “There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds,”

Asia is the continent currently stretching their architectural muscle. Shanghai has the Oriental Pearl Tower — a 1,536 foot-tall space age broadcast tower which has become an instantly recognizable symbol of Shanghai.

The world’s tallest buildings are the twin towers in Kula Lampour, Malaysia. Do you think a big building on the end of an island like Manhattan will ever be built in the U.S. again? Not likely.

These days, much of the U.S. architectural innovation takes place in Las Vegas.

The Strip is an evolving museum of American pop architecture, rising from the desert sand and mixing fantasy and humor on a grand scale.

“The thing that I like about the Strip is, it’s a live design,” sites Dave Hickey, of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Architecture. “It’s undergoing solutions to design problems at such an accelerated rate. It’s a wonderful petri dish for looking at the way design works.”

The construction of Steve Wynn’s Mirage was a historical starting point that was wowed by Treasure Island’s pirate battle. What followed was a multibillion-dollar game of “Can You Top This?”.

“I love New York — New York from the outside,” Hickey says.“In a design sense, it is a great big version of a little teeny model of New York. It is one of the most interesting things architecturally I’ve ever seen. It’s also witty.”

On the Las Vegas Strip, architectural design has purpose: Establishing an identity from the street. When it works, it attracts throngs of tourists through intrigue or entertainment.

The innovation taking place in Las Vegas is a far cry from the limitations in new construction going on across the country.

Jodi Summers is Director of the Investment Division at Boardwalk Realty. Visit her on the Web at www.SoCalInvestmentRealEstate.com and www.SantaMonicaLandmarks.com.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 22, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112206.pdf?ref=smdp.com)