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Symbols in The American City

This exhibit by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates explored signs and symbols in American cities. It was displayed at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in 1976. The exhibit looked at signs and symbols in homes, on commercial strips, and in urban streets. It attracted significant attention and was based on VSBA's earlier research on learning from Las Vegas. The exhibit provoked reconsideration of the importance of diversity and the vernacular in how people perceive their environment.

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Minnu Varghese
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178 views4 pages

Symbols in The American City

This exhibit by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates explored signs and symbols in American cities. It was displayed at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in 1976. The exhibit looked at signs and symbols in homes, on commercial strips, and in urban streets. It attracted significant attention and was based on VSBA's earlier research on learning from Las Vegas. The exhibit provoked reconsideration of the importance of diversity and the vernacular in how people perceive their environment.

Uploaded by

Minnu Varghese
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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VSBA

SIGNS OF LIFE:
SYMBOLS IN THE AMERICAN CITY,
EXHIBITION

Architects: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.


Location: Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine
Arts, Washington, D.C.
Client: The Smithsonian Institution
Completion: 1976

This Bicentennial exhibition was sponsored by the


Smithsonian Institute and installed in its Renwick Gallery.
VSBA’s exhibit explored historical and contemporary signs
and symbols in the American city. It emphasized the
rich persuasion of signs and symbols in our environment,
demonstrating their pervasiveness throughout our
society. The exhibit was structured in three parts:
signs and symbols in the home (furnishings, decoration,
architectural style, and details); on the commercial strip
(signs, architecture, gas stations, motels, etc.); and on
the street (urban commercial streets, civic buildings as
symbols, parks, squares, etc.).

The exhibit attracted major attention on a popular as


well as a critical level and was one of the most successful
exhibits the Renwick Gallery has installed. Signs of Life
was based on the “Learning from Las Vegas” research
project conducted by VSBA at Yale University in 1968 and on our further extensive
research and analysis of American cities. Like the earlier books Contradiction and
Complexity by Robert Venturi and Learning From Las Vegas by Robert Venturi,
Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Signs of Life provoked a major public and
professional reassessment of the importance of diversity and the vernacular in our
lives and of the way we perceive our environment.
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VSBA

Signs of Life in the American City,


Smithsonian Institution
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VSBA

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VSBA

Signs of Life in the American City,


Smithsonian Institution
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