The project consists in the translation of the German book publication Las Vegas im Rückspiegel: Die Stadt in Theorie, Fotografie und Film (Zurich ,2010), which is based on the author's award-winning doctoral thesis (ETH Zurich, 2007). This study undertakes a historical and critical inquiry into Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour's Learning from Las Vegas and tries to situate it within postwar architectural and urban discourse. Unlike other studies on the topic, particular emphasis is given to analyzing the role of visual media such as photography and film, not only for their representation of urban form, but also as epistemological tools with regard to architectural research. Through the translation, findings will be made accessible to an English-speaking audience. Las Vegas in the Rear-View Mirror hopes to substantially further the understanding of this seminal urban study and the consequences of its methodological implications for contemporary architectural research.

Martino Stierli is an art and architectural historian specializing in modern art, architecture, and urbanism. He teaches at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zürich.  After having studied at the University of Zürich, he completed his PhD studies at ETH Zürich in 2007 with a thesis that was awarded the ETH medal of distinction and the Theodor Fischer Prize of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich. From 2007 to 2011, Stierli worked as a postdoctoral researcher with the National Centre of Competence in Research on Iconic Criticism at the University of Basel. He is the cocurator of the international traveling exhibition Las Vegas Studio: Images from the Archives of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and author of Las Vegas im Rückspiegel (2010). In 2011–12, he will be a fellow at the Getty Research Institute.