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Learning from Las Vegas in the context of now is completely historical. If you had written a book on the Renaissance in Florence, it would have taken maybe 100 years to say, “Oh that’s historical.” Now you can say 35 years have gone by very fast.

Robert Venturi reflecting on the publication, in 1968, of Learning from Las Vegas. The book was a revolutionary embrace of vernacular architecture on both its own terms and terms of high art, aesthetics, theory, etc.. From an interview reprinted in the excellent photography blog American Suburb X. A seminal salvo in the hi/lo art debate, well worth revisiting.

Learning from Las Vegas in the context of now is completely historical. If you had written a book on the Renaissance in Florence, it would have taken maybe 100 years to say, “Oh that’s historical.” Now you can say 35 years have gone by very fast.

Robert Venturi reflecting on the publication, in 1968, of Learning from Las Vegas. The book was a revolutionary embrace of vernacular architecture on both its own terms and terms of high art, aesthetics, theory, etc.. From an interview reprinted in the excellent photography blog American Suburb X. A seminal salvo in the hi/lo art debate, well worth revisiting.