um, perhaps Vegas gets singled out because of *Learning From Las Vegas*
by Venturi, Scott Brown, and Izenour. It started in 1968 as an essay
called "A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas,"
and was expanded into a book in 1972. It was one of the first studies to
advance the concept of postmodernism as both architectural practice and
as critical tool for understanding cultural/critical implications of
urban sprawl.
I use the section from it on sprawl vs. megastructure in my argumentative
and expository writing classes to develop a language for describing
different types of "web experiences." The chapter on "Theory of the Ugly
and Ordinary" also has something to offer...
ar