The Untold Stories class yesterday focused on architecture and the panel was architects that designed Las Vegas buildings from the 40s and later. There were great stories about the past, present, and future of structures. One sticky point was that this is mostly a historical group and there is a huge difference between what buildings should be preserved from an architectural standpoint versus a historical standpoint. Maybe you've seen some beautiful houses south of downtown around 7th st. These little whimsical gingerbread house looking homes are mostly filled with lawyers offices. The historical value is out of sight, yet they have almost no architectural value. Even in large tourist constructions, many of the buildings being torn down are the ones that should be left standing and many of the ones that get facelifts should be torn down. It seems a building with architectural value will have stuff such as flowing lines, well planed stone layout, maintain room for modernization, and utilize environmental factors. The lawyer offices that were once homes still look like homes yet they were built before air conditioning, have no insulation, holes cut all over the place for electrical, telephone, plumbing, etc. These homes are preserved as the lawyers can afford outrageous electrical bills, a nice facade, and excellent landscaping. The homes we should have kept were the mid century modern homes made just after WWII, that were designed for how a person wants to live. This would include floor to ceiling windows, front porches, circular drives, notched roofs with skylights, big kitchens, and nice entertainment areas. There were hundreds of these on the old DI golf course. Steve Wynn destroyed them to make his new golf course, which is slated to be destroyed to make convention space. One of those homes was salvaged and moved close to downtown.
Next months class will be on collectibles. There have been people collecting Las Vegas memorabilia since day one, and they have lots of "stuff".
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