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Originally Posted by Phat Stanley
LOL... it does seem like it belongs right at the end of The Strip, doesn't it? I never knew Islam was so completely over the top in a Vegas kinda way!
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People keep repeating the Vegas thing, but don't seem to have a clue what's going on architecturally here or there. The Bellagio and the Venetian are cheap imitations of Venetian architecture, which in turn was once its own cheap imitation of Moorish North African Islamic architecture. This is
actual Islamic architecture-- more correctly a palimpsest of the many cultural manifestations it has taken over the years. One can see the Alhambra, the Dome of the Rock, Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, on and on.
But why educate yourself about these things?
I'm not a fan of the building, but it doesn't take a lot of architecture or art history classes to know where these elements and motifs come from.
Also, @CroBurnham: the hubris elements of the building are most decidedly western-inspired. Nobody does hubris better than Americans. The art-deco Chrysler building seemed uncommonly garish and cheap to many who derided its flat, riveted, unadorned steel in simple radiating geometric patterns, which were at odds with the ornament and filigree of the predominant Beaux-Arts styles at the time. And it was fantastically, egomaniacally tall, too. But hey, it's great now, huh?