The city, characterized by the Strip and neon, was viewed as so distinct from the rest of the country the perception was that little could be learned by architects and planners - notwithstanding a controversial 1972 book by two architects who argued lessons could be learned from Las Vegas.

When more than 6,000 architects and planners descended on the city last week during the 100th anniversary conference of the American Planning Association, attendees toured master-planned communities, saw efforts to revitalize downtown Las Vegas and got a chance to see what has been described as the infancy of the fourth generation of casino development in the city, according to Paul Goldberger, architectural critic for The New Yorker and design professor at the New School in New York City.

MGM Mirage's CityCenter - an $8 billion-plus high-rise development of condos, hotels and casinos - epitomizes the dense urban-style projects that will dot the Las Vegas skyline in the future, he said.

"The desire for more urbanization is the fourth generation of Las Vegas we are just now in the beginning of," Goldberger said. "The third generation is effectively over, and so we are seeing projects like CityCenter."

The renowned international architects who are designing CityCenter's towers are part of the worldwide trend of celebrity architects. Their challenge is to design buildings that don't look too much like the rest of Las Vegas, but something that would fits the decor of the city, he said.

"These star architects are a new theme themselves," Goldberger said. "It is part of what is happening with the fourth generation. Las Vegas can treat the rest of the world like it was some enormous buffet and (the city) can pick and choose what it wants to bring here."

That fits the theme of Las Vegas' seeing bigger as better, Goldberger said.

Downtown Las Vegas marked the first generation, which Goldberger said was a "more conventional urban place than history gives it credit for ... It was like most western U.S. cities, except a lot more neon."

Few remnants of the first generation remain. He said many in Las Vegas view downtown as a problem, if not an embarrassment, and wish it would "simply evaporate."

Even the 61-acre Union Square revitalization project is viewed more as a "piece of geography rather than a resource," Goldberger said. It shouldn't be viewed simply as available land for development.

"The one thing Las Vegas does not do well is thinking of itself in historical terms," Goldberger said. That differentiates it from other major American cities, which no longer view the future as unfettered good, he said.

"In Las Vegas, people pretty much believe that things only get better if they only get bigger, and by getting bigger, they definitely get better," Goldberger said. "If you think that way, the past is an albatross."

The second generation of Las Vegas was the development of Strip casinos in the 1950s. Beyond that was "the throwing away of the old" across the U.S. after World War II, Goldberger said. That was what architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi wrote about in their 1972 book, "Learning From Las Vegas."

Construction continues on the Harmon boutique hotel at CityCenter. STEVE MARCUS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The sprawl of the Strip was no different from commercial strips that extended out from cities with the advent of the automobile. Downtowns were viewed as static and dull and, like paper towels, to be thrown away. New development was viewed as exciting, and buildings got their meaning from signage rather than architecture, much like a Middle East bazaar using its merchandise as a sign, Goldberger said.

"They were saying that Las Vegas, for all its unusual qualities, was a basic American commercial strip blown up on a vast scale," Goldberger said. "Was there a huge difference between Bob Evans on a roadside strip in Ohio and the Stardust in Las Vegas? The Stardust was bigger and brighter and more fun to look at, but both were designed to communicate to the automobile.

"They were trying to tell us the Las Vegas Strip was the American commercial strip on steroids."

The book generated controversy because it pointed out the Strip embodied that movement, did it well and should be studied further, Goldberger said.

"That was scandalous in the early 1970s," Goldberger said. "If you were serious and educated, you were not supposed to think popular culture produced great works of art."

The premise that ordinary buildings that weren't designed by famous architects might be OK was akin to Karl Marx challenging capitalism, Goldberger said. It was considered subversion at the time.

The authors envisioned that the second generation would ultimately be replaced, which it was by third generation projects such as Luxor, New York-New York, Paris Las Vegas, the Venetian and other themed casinos that in a sense replaced the signs with themed architecture, Goldberger said.

Even the authors suggested in the book that change is permanent along the Strip, he said.

"The competition and pressure for bigger and bigger signs keep growing so you are not blocked by your competition," Goldberger said. "What they did not envision was that the buildings behind the signs would change as much as they have. They exploded in scale and were not just an expanded version of a motel that they once were."

Even today, that attitude is dangerous, Goldberger said. It's not a solid premise on which to sustain a city constrained by real estate, and that makes its future more tenuous.

"It is shaky to be built on shifting sands because when the outward rush slows and the music stops, it has no place to go and no idea what to do and what its reason for being is," Goldberger said.

The American Planning Association singled out Las Vegas as a laboratory to learn about the hospitality industry since many cities across the country have targeted that sector, Executive Director Paul Farmer said. Las Vegas' rapid growth and its coping with limited water resources make it relevant to what planners are facing today, he said.

Even if Las Vegas is like any other city, but more so, that "more so" is pretty intense and makes it a different place, Goldberger said. He said there is an essence to the city, a character that can't be confused with anyplace else and that counts for something, he said.

Other cities are becoming more like Las Vegas with the notion they are places of entertainment, tourism and leisure. Many downtowns are no longer the manufacturing centers they once were, but a public realm like the Strip, Goldberger said.

"Every city is becoming more like Las Vegas, you might say," Goldberger said. People want the excitement and novelty and stimulation and interaction with others, he said.

Brian Wargo covers real estate and development for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4011 or at wargo@lasvegassun.com.