Editing Robert Venturi (section)

== Learning from Las Vegas ==

''Learning from Las Vegas'' (1972), written with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, extended Venturi's critique to embrace popular culture and commercial architecture. The book studied the Las Vegas Strip as urban phenomenon, finding in its signs, parking lots, and decorated sheds a valid architectural culture that modernists dismissed. The distinction between "ducks" (buildings whose form expresses function sculpturally) and "decorated sheds" (conventional buildings with applied signs and ornament) became influential conceptual tool. The book argued that architects should learn from commercial vernacular rather than despise it.<ref name="schwartz"/>

The book generated controversy that persists decades later. Critics accused Venturi and Scott Brown of celebrating vulgarity and abandoning architecture's traditional standards. Defenders saw the work as liberating architecture from elitist constraints and recognizing legitimate popular expression. Whatever the assessment, ''Learning from Las Vegas'' fundamentally changed architectural discourse, making it impossible to ignore the commercial environment that constitutes most Americans' built experience.<ref name="venturi"/>