SUSTAINABILITY - I promise to look up the definition after I write this. However I'm pretty sure that I can take a good guess at what the intent is when used regarding design and the environment.
I was listening to NPR this morning and got focused on the GRAND OPENING for the new Las Vegas City Center project ("Welcome to the capital of the New World"). Was so interesting to hear the developers / architects interviewed describe some of the structures / buildings within the project as "sustainable". What? did I just hear that...
DISCLAIMER: I've been to Las Vegas (formerly the Las Vegas Rancho) once before and yes it does have a certain allure and I'm sure some day I'll go back (for no more than 48 hours though). I am also someone who is not necessarily anti-development. I have worked for developers and assisted them in positioning and branding their residential and retail properties - more urban in-fill projects. I have even worked on a retail center in Northern Vegas.
HELLO... Earth to said Architects and Developers... there is nothing sustainable about building any part of a massive development in the middle of the desert!!! The amount of WATER and POWER needed to "sustain" Las Vegas in general is ridiculous! They do not call it the Cadillac Desert for nothing.
Sorry, but just a rant! I can't knock these folks too hard for at least trying to move in a more responsible development direction. I suppose abandoning Vegas altogether is out of the question? Well, with the Vegas home prices literally defining the verb TANKING who knows it may just happen.
Links to some of the Architect's / Designer's / Developer's websites:
Here is an article that came out in the Chronicle newspaper. A review of the development.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/18/TRMN1AEHVG.DTL