Cosmo: Porches and walls

Today’s guest-blogger contribution comes from Dr. Augie Grant, holder of the J. Rion McKissick Professorship of Journalism at the University of South Carolina‘s School of Journalism & Mass Communications. Prof. Grant was in Las Vegas for the opening of The Cosmopolitan and took advantage of the opportunity to compare it to next-door neighbor CityCenter. With Yr. Humble Blogger just back from two days in sickbay, S&G warmly appreciates the good professor’s timely contribution.

You can tell a lot about a neighborhood by looking at the front of the houses. If the houses have porches and are close to the street, you can bet that you’ll see people stopping by or saying “hi” as they pass by. But if the houses have walls and are set well back from the street, that’s a clear sign that company is usually not welcome—except by invitation, of course.

The Cosmopolitan resort and CityCenter represent this dichotomy on a grand scale. The Cosmopolitan is right on the street, with doors open to welcome anyone who wanders by. But CityCenter, especially its Aria centerpiece, is like a mansion, set well back from the Strip, with imposing concrete barriers that provide a not-too-subtle hint to visitors that this is not a place you simply drop by to say “hi.

It’s ironic to find such a set of barriers built into a set of buildings that are on one of the most famous pedestrian streets in the world. Even worse, the design of CityCenter deliberately inhibits pedestrian traffic. You can’t even walk past the property without having to detour a fair distance into the property to climb a bridge over the access roads—twice! (Side note: If you need to walk past CityCenter on that side of the street, the easiest path is to get to the second level and walk through the Crystals mall. It’s not too far out of the way.)

Pedestrian bridges are nothing new on the Strip — they’ve been helping the traffic flow at major intersections for more than a decade. But the maze of pedestrian access past CityCenter can definitely make a person feel less than welcome there. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of crosswalks across Las Vegas Boulevard the entire length of CityCenter. Not only were no crosswalks built when the streets were redesigned for CityCenter but a fence was put down the middle of Strip, providing a no-nonsense barrier that effectively keeps the casual customer out … or does it keep the CityCenter guest in?

Contrast the enclave that is CityCenter with the open access to the Cosmopolitan. Take the porch metaphor to an extreme — there is may be no better porches in Las Vegas than the fourth-floor patio that sits right on the Strip and the tiered balconies on every floor that rise above it.

So I’m left to wonder: Did MGM Resorts International design CityCenter as an enclave, to keep the right people in and all others out? Was that an unfortunate accident of the architectural requirements for the “urban complex” that is CityCenter? If it was an accident, MGM has a ready facility that can address the problem — the first two floors of the now-vacant Harmon stump (left) could be outfitted as a casino, with access at both the street and pedestrian bridge levels that could welcome visitors from almost any direction. But it won’t happen—it’s probably less trouble to wrap signs around the building and keep it empty, providing yet another barrier between the Strip and CityCenter.

And the Cosmopolitan will stand beside it, with open doors and one of the best front porches in the world. I’m not qualified to compare the architecture of the two developments, but I know which one has made me feel welcome during my last two visits to Las Vegas. I’ll take a porch over a wall any day. — Augie Grant, USC