Wynn Las Vegas: a flagship destination resort

This chapter focuses on the relationship between culture, creativity and the city using Las Vegas as a case study. The current economic downturn has resulted in an identity crisis for the city as it struggles to maintain its position as the pre-eminent global pleasure destination. The activities of powerful local business interests and the use of art as a tool of re-imaging is analysed. Claims of flagship and paradigmatic status for entrepreneur Steve Wynn’s latest real estate project are evaluated in terms of whether it offers any innovations to the existing hotel-casino model. It is argued that Wynn Las Vegas is employed as a synecdoche for Las Vegas ‘city of re-invention’ as it moves into a new transitional phase of growth.

This chapter is part of a body of work that considers the role of culture in the regeneration and re-imaging of place. By investigating the use of art, design and architecture to support both public and private interests, it is possible to get a sense of the tensions between competing claims among community groups about what culture should be and its role in expressing a material, social and imaginative attachment to the city. Las Vegas and Crystal Palace have been used as case studies through which to explore the complex and contested nature of place and its relationship to local and global identity. Other related conferences and publications include:

Ryan, N. (2012) ‘Art and Urban Renewal: Public and Private Developments in Las Vegas’, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan Journals. (forthcoming)
Ryan, N. (2009) ‘The 'Entertainment' City in the Time of Austerity’, The Production and Consumption of Placeless Space, Symposium, University of Liverpool, 29th April.
Ryan, N. (2009) ‘Crystal Palace and the Politics of Place’, in J. Caudwell et al. (eds.) Tourism and Leisure: Local Communities and Local Cultures in the UK, LSA Publication No. 105, pp. 57-74.

Ryan, N (2009) ‘The Palimpsest of Place: Community, Architecture and Consensus’, The Politics of Space and Place, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton, September 16th-18th.