Excerpted from Rick Cole's article "Las Vegas: The Boom - Bust Bender" for New Geography on 01/14/2010
The debut of the colossal $8.5 billion CityCenter, Vegas makes pretension to "sustainable urbanism." Even by Vegas standards of hype, this is mendacity at a colossal scale. CityCenter’s developers claim that it is "one of the largest sustainable developments in the world."
A mecca for gambling, shopping and recreation built in a desert climate is, by definition, unsustainable.
L.A. Times architecture writer Christopher Hawthorne calls City Center "a final bender for Wall Street's decade of unreason." Is it too much to hope that this glitzy fiasco will permanently discredit the blend of leveraged debt, "starchitecture," and headlong consumerism that has spread around the world with ever taller and more fanciful towers and ever more grandiose claims to represent a glorious future?
Megaprojects are the product of meglomania, whether in Las Vegas, Shanghai, Dubai, Universal Studios or downtown Los Angeles. No amount of solar-paneled green cladding can disguise their fundamental flaw: Bigness dwarfs and often destroys the human scale that great places have in common.
It is hard not to admire the audacity, the “make no little plans” grandeur of big visions. The Greeks, however, had a name for such delusions: hubris. When Icarus climbed too close to the sun his wings melted and he plunged into the sea.
Public officials continue to be particularly prone to the siren song of megadevelopments. Grand Avenue in Los Angeles; Ground Zero in Manhattan; Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn; Hunters Point in San Francisco...
The invariable promises of investment returns commensurate with the project’s size invariably disappoint. No one is that smart, it turns out. Sustainable urbanism comes in small doses, crafted to the climate and history of real places. It comes from new building that respects human scale and the fabric of organic towns and cities. It emerges from the efforts of property owners, investors, designers and craftspeople understanding and applying timeless principles to the needs of our time.
Sustainable urbanism doesn’t have to carry the weight of the overhead and egos of mega developers, starchitects, and all the myriad fixers - such as the lobbyists, lawyers, flacks, event planners, consultants etc - that live off their wake . It doesn’t put the public purse at risk on speculative real estate ventures. The public isn’t jolted with yet another over-the-top effort to shock and awe them with ever-larger and more lavish excess. Instead, sustainable urbanism thrives off both the synergy and the competition that comes from appropriately sized and scaled additions to the cityscape.
These comparably large projects stretch the limit of scale on place-making, financial risk and social and economic diversity.
The counter argument is, of course, that no one knows if they will stand the test of time and “if you build it they will come.” When we have four billion more people on the planet....CityCenter will be vindicated as a form of visionary city building that was simply ahead of its time.
Common sense ought to prevail. Megaprojects are bad bets, even in Las Vegas. In almost every regard, giant projects crush the essential elements of diversity, flexibility and intimacy necessary to making (and sustaining) great places.
Instead of CityCenter, imagine something on its scale broken up into 1500 more modest projects across America; each significant enough to make a mark, yet restrained enough to strengthen the city instead of overwhelm it. Not only would the investment have made a far better contribution to the goal of "sustainable urbanism", it would have been far less recklessly risky.
Other MGM Mirage Posts
MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) - Living on a Prayer in 2010 (Despite "Upgrade")
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2010/01/13/mgm-mirage-nyse-mgm-living-on-a-prayer-i
Casinos Won't Recover - What it Means for MGM Mirage
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2010/01/11/casinos-won-t-recover-what-it-means-for
MGM Mirage on Life Support - 2010 Not a Happy New Year
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2010/01/07/mgm-mirage-on-life-support-2010-not-a-ha
MGM Mirage - City Center is Doomed in 2010 to Cannibalism
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2009/12/31/mgm-mirage-city-center-is-doomed-to-cann
James "Jimmy" Murren - CEO MGM Mirage, Has A Magic Dream
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2009/12/29/james-jimmy-murren-ceo-mgm-mirage-has-a
MGM's Kirk Kerkorian's CEO (Jim Murren) - A Con Artist?
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2009/12/21/james-j-murren-chairman-of-the-board-and
MGM's Mister Kerkorian is a Very Wise Man
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog2.php/2009/12/21/mgm-s-mister-kerkorian-is-a-very-wise-ma
Also see > CityCenter, Infinity World Development, MGM Mirage, Tracinda, Kerkorian
Rick Cole is city manager of Ventura, California, and recipient of the Municipal Management Association of Southern California's Excellence in Government Award.
He can be reached at RCole@ci.ventura.ca.us
Original Source:
http://www.newgeography.com/content/001333-las-vegas-the-big-the-boom-and-the-bust
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