The strip at Vegas is all about architectural drama. It rabidly borrows from the old, the dramatic, the distinctive; and then couples that with newness, freshness, cleanliness, air-conditioning and gambling.

The hotels are small dramatic conceptualisations of the old world; except the toilets work, the air is not musty, and every whim is catered for under the banner of 'sin city' and "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

That newness comes at a cost. Vegas is constantly being torn down and rebuilt. The cabbie told us that the hotel being built where the cranes are was costing 13 billion in investment. That kind of money can only come from Wall Street. The mob got run out of Vegas ages ago, partly because they were unable to raise the amount of capital that successful Vegas hotels required.

Vegas cannot afford to let anything get old. Instead it reinvents the old by making it new; and very dramatic.

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Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson | September 18, 2007 04:35 PM

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