Las Vegas Urban Design Project: Final Submission

The new development for Las Vegas will form a connection between the proposed High Speed Rail Station and the new VIVA Station development located west of I-15. The development will incorporate a multitude of uses, including a new linear parkway that extends North/South, office space, condominiums, affordable housing, a recreation center, an event center, and commercial space. Combinatory Urbanism, a concept established by Thom Mayne, was incorporated into this project. 

From Morphopedia:
THOM MAYNE’S COMBINATORY URBANISM: THE COMPLEX BEHAVIOR OF COLLECTIVE FORM EXPLORES NEW DIRECTIONS AND APPROACHES TO URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN. 

For the past forty years Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis, have been engaged with projects that exist in the hybrid space between architecture and urban planning. Against this backdrop, Thom Mayne’s new book Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form (Stray Dog Café, 2011) surveys 12 urban projects that range in scale from a 16-acre proposal for rebuilding the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terrorist attacks to a 52 thousand-acre redevelopment proposal for Post-Katrina New Orleans. This book and the proposals found within, posit an alternative to traditional end-state planning solutions, while attempting to not only illuminate but also explicate Mayne’s own work and critical processes. Combinatory Urbanism represents a departure from previous Morphosis publications. Both a manifesto on urbanism and a comprehensive presentation of Morphosis urban design projects, many of which have never before been published; this book fills a void in the world of architectural and urban design publications. 


I used this idea in my design to suggest a new type of Las Vegas Urbanism that responds to the needs and multitude of uses that the people of Las Vegas demand. By intersecting and combining program uses and building form, the development was able to "explore new directions and approaches to urban planning and design" in a beneficial way. The development strives to create a new Las Vegas experience that attracts not only tourists, but locals as well who are looking for a place that meets their work, live, and play needs.