Sad the most of those hotels are either gone have been completely remodeled.

In the early 90s I worked at the Flamingo on the fabulous Las Vegas Strip. At the time, the original building was still there. The Bugsy Seigal suite was pretty mediocre by modern Vegas standards. And people hated staying in those rooms since they were old and musty and not new and flashy like the tower rooms.

Vegas is the only town I know where they tear down perfectly good buildings to make larger buildings they will probably tear down in 30 years.

Vegas may tear down buildings quite often, but virtually everything is recycled as that is cheaper than trucking it in all over again.

Also, the first wave of reconstruction was due more to the problems associated with retrofitting year-round air conditioning into buildings primarily of wood construction in a desert environment. The wood framing became a breeding ground for molds, bacteria and any number of nasty growths, thus the source of the mustiness. Plant and operations executives are learning now that even concrete and steel construction has its own problems.

The other reason for constant reinvention is Vegas has learned that a resort area can market nostalgia only so far. Cash flows at the downtown casinos are drying up at an unprecedented rate.

Gambling is no longer the cash cow of former times; today's regular Vegas visitor is the weekday sales executive and his/her staff or the weekend club hopper. The casinos are relying now more than ever on Vegas locals for covering the overhead. The hottest marketing pitch right now is attracting recent retirees into relocating here.

Vegas shares the same problem as amusement parks. Familiarity breeds boredom, and bigger thrills are needed to attract both the aging regular as well as the incoming generation. For that reason, Vegas will always be in a state of transition.

This is now my desktop wallpaper.

Thanks for this, I remember back when the strip had so much open space. I miss old Vegas.

Here's some more nostalgia - a picture of my mom (the platinum blonde(!)on the left) and her friend in '58.

≡ Click to see image ≡