Sunday, October 14, 2012

Architecture of the Vegas Strip (Walking Blog #12)


            When you end up spending a whole weekend in Las Vegas, you end up having a lot to say on the matter, so just like my last blog, this one will also be about my epic adventures in Las Vegas.  It was Sunday morning (so maybe it wasn’t morning, but it was like 11:30) I revisited the Las Vegas Strip with Terrayna because our flight back to Reno wasn’t until later that afternoon. She showed me more of the downtown area, and because it was daylight, I was able to observe the architecture and the building styles. One thing that I noticed was that Virginia Street in Reno does not even come close to comparing to the Las Vegas Strip. The Strip is spectacular, and it has so many unique buildings.  It seems like each hotel/casino was built to represent a theme. For example the Luxor looks like a pyramid for and Egyptian theme, and the Excalibur is built to emulate a castle from medieval times. My favorite casino based on its architecture is the New York New York, because I like how one building is made to look like many buildings all smushed together.
            The thing that interests me the most is that all the buildings are plastered in flashing and moving lights. It’s almost like it is a competition as to which building will catch your attention first. I continue to walk and I see the Stratosphere in the distance, and I start to realize how awesome Las Vegas really is. It is really in a class of its own when it is compared to other cities. First of all, it’s a casino city, so there aren’t many other cities in the United States where this is legal. Compared to Reno, Las Vegas is magnificent and enormous.  While I am used to planning an extra 5 minutes of travel time to go through downtown Reno, it would probably take over 30 minutes to get through downtown Las Vegas.
            The architecture of Las Vegas points to the importance of entertainment in the culture. Everywhere you look there are signs that advertise different shows to see or different palaces to eat, and it is obvious that the city lives and breathes just to entertain people while they are vacationing. These are some values of our society, because in this day and age, people sometimes feel entitled to being entertained and to having fun.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my gosh, it actually takes a good hour to get from the very end of downtown to the south end where the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign is. But I find it really intriguing as well that the architecture is all about different themes. That is highly celebrated on the strip. I guess they have the big bright lights in common but not really anything else. I do find it interesting how all the newer buildings are taking a different approach and are just much more futuristic and that of a materialistic society. I didn't know that you and Terrayna went to the strip after you left me house! What the heck. Hahaha. Anyway, really good post. :D Reno definitely is awesome as well. They are just hard to compare since they are so different.

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