Las Vegas's main strip

This panorama is of Las Vegas’s main strip this image was taken from a website which seeks to advertise the city as “SIn CIty”. This image is a fine example of a themed city, Vegas also displays the death of the grand narrative and cultural fragmentation in a physical manifestation with its uncoordinated urban sprawl, although the main strip is meant to be in a way a centre, the way in which it is organised, is Indicative that ita a decentralised and fragmented urban space which displays an absence of the organic apart from a few trees poking through the concrete jungle which gives the indication of the death of the city as a meaningful centre.

The image conforms to Ralph's postmodern townscape in that the image shows textured facades that allow pedestrians to move freely, in the foreground of the picture a car park and walkways can clearly be depicted where both the road and the pedestrian intersect, also fitting Ralph's description is that the Postmodern displays stylishness which accentuates affluence and fashionability. The colourful allure of the lights displayed on the buildings support this assessment.

This also shows Hyperreality the culture of simulation where people prefer the vivid decorated exterior of the Las Vegas buildings in contrast with other cities like New York which displays a more modernist construction design. The variation in the colour and the shapes of the buildings demonstrate Exteriorisation which “express the self, either through architecture as a display of identity” moreover it represents individual aspirations in what can be achieved through architectural commerce which could draw the comparison to the “city as a theme park”. The billboards and automobiles make up a glamorous simulation with the neon colours light contrasting well with the night sky. “theme parks as places of simulation without end, charac¬terized by aspatiality plus technological and. physical surveillance and control.” The casinos in the picture would have their own security forces in order to protect their profit-making margins which would enforce their economic control.

The majority of the casinos, night clubs and hotels are located along the main strip this can be seen in the panorama all display a themed urban space, the monuments in Las Vegas such as a building shaped like the Eiffel Tower which displays nostalgia, can be observed in the picture is a pastiche (blank parody) which in addition shows Intertextuality between various world wide cities including New York’s Times Square suggesting that originality has been usurped. This panorama shows clearly thatLas Vegas is a Postmodern city through its use of simulation and its multitude of themed environments.