Abstract
How and why does the material city in the late 20th and early 21st century change? This article examines one type of prominent urban change, which is “fits-and-starts” and represents change that is concentrated in space and time and that nonetheless has longer term repercussions with high economic and environmental costs. Through a review of the literature and an illuminating case study in Las Vegas, this article reveals how human perception and decision-making via two interrelated phenomena, future speculation and manufactured obsolescence, drive such change. The case study in Las Vegas is particularly fascinating because as a city of apparent extremes, it not only reveals in clear relief phenomena that are present in the capitalist city but it also offers insights into basic patterns of decision-making that actually shape—or design—the contemporary city. The article concludes with more general insights into the nature of this type of urban change and implications for alternative types of urban practices.
Highlights
Cities were thought to have changed grad‐ ually, much like the metaphor of a slowly flowing river that changes course over centuries and millennia
In con‐ trast, this research makes the claim that prominent parts of the contemporary city often change in fits‐and‐starts, which are sporadic bursts of activity that are concen‐ trated in time and space but that have long‐lasting consequences
Based on many years of my own professional experience working with devel‐ opers in different parts of the world and research con‐ ducted by my colleagues and I on the role of developers in the shaping the material city in the U.S (e.g., Inam, 2012; Inam et al, 2004; Levine & Inam, 2004), we found that urban change can be quite idiosyncratic because it is derived from human decision‐making based on perceptions, which are in turn and to various degrees informed by previous experience, peer actions, and larger political and economic trends
Summary
Cities were thought to have changed grad‐ ually, much like the metaphor of a slowly flowing river that changes course over centuries and millennia. Between 1993 and 2016, in a highly accelerated version of the change that many U.S cities experience, Las Vegas demolished significant hotels, casi‐ nos, and resorts: the Dunes, Landmark, Sands, Hacienda, Aladdin, El Rancho, Desert Inn, Boardwalk, Stardust, New Frontier, Riviera, and Clarion. They were replaced by new icons of the Las Vegas Strip, such as the Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay, Planet Hollywood, Wynn, and CityCenter casino‐hotel‐resorts. I examine the various discussions of the changing material city in the literature
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