Signs Taken for Wonders

Abstract

My essay re-examines Learning from Las Vegas semiotic presentation of architectural symbolism. First, I argue that the attempt to approach architectural symbols technically, outside their socioeconomic context, overlooks important aspects of signs’ functioning. Second, I use visual and verbal metaphors that designers and viewers apply to buildings to suggest that empathetic and embodied meanings are essential to architecture’s symbolism. These kinds of meanings were vividly manifested in the "heroic and original" buildings that Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour dismiss.