Eyes That Saw

Published in 1972, Learning from Las Vegas was an almost instant—yet controversial— classic. Born of a design and research studio led by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and graduate student Steven Izenour at the Yale School of Architecture in 1968, its exploration of the signs and urban form of Las Vegas revitalized the architecture discourse of the 1970s and a key reference for postmodernism in architecture, urban design, visual art, and history more broadly. It remains influential for architects, urbanists, and design theorists to the present day.

Five decades after the legendary Las Vegas studio, Eyes that Saw: Architecture after Las Vegas, published in collaboration with Yale School of Architecture, offers a richly illustrated collection of essays investigating the significance of the fieldwork that constituted the basis of Learning from Las Vegas from various perspectives. The essays also discuss the great architectural tome’s unique position in a network of social, political, and intellectual forces. Published alongside are documents from the Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates archive, as well as an illustrated chronology of international media following the publication of Learning from Las Vegas. Contributors include architects, artists, and scholars, such as Stan Allen, Eve Blau, Beatriz Colomina, Valéry Didelon, Elizabeth Diller, Peter Fischli, Dan Graham, Neil Levine, Mary McLeod, Rafael Moneo, Stanislaus von Moos, Katherine Smith, Martino Stierli, Karin Theunissen, Robert Venturi, and Denise Scott Brown.