Las Vegas is forever evolving. I imagine the place as a kind of organism that is alive and constantly metastasizing into different forms. It is not just metastasizing it is in a constant state of metamorphosis. I almost think a new word should be invented to describe the condition, perhaps "metastasorphosis." It is precisely this change that intrigues me so much. I have often said that if I could change my way in life I would have been an urban planner. There is something about the re-invention of design and function that fascinates me. Very few urban planners begin with a blank slate, a canvas with which to completely adorn with their own image of perfection. While this might seem idyllic, in truth I think it is a recipe for disaster. Cities created with such an open canvas tend to be Stalinistic monolithic nightmares or organized chaos. Brasilia was carved out of the jungle as a model capital and is instead an urban horror of concrete steel and glass that is as out of place as an iceberg in the Sahara. While some people laud it as a masterpiece of art and design I think it is one of the most inhuman spaces on the planet that looks like several giant alien mother ships crashed and were turned into enormous salad bowls. I think comprehensive designs often fall victim to this because they are created around a single image as opposed to something that grows piece by piece and develops around the needs of a society. On the surface the design might seem harmonious, in truth function yields to aesthetics and relevance to people is sacrificed for a typically over blown statement. Make no mistake; we have been doing this since human beings began to build. As dramatic as they are, think how out of place the pyramids of Giza or of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations must have looked when juxtaposed against the modest living villages that surrounded them. The difference however is that these large monuments did not pretend to redesign the way people live.
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| Brasilia, Brazil |
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| Brasilia, Brazil |
Our model capital when created by Pierre L'Efant seems to be a masterpiece of design when viewed on a flat page. I would love to hang it all the wall of my house and marvel at the long straight lines and geometric design. Only when you attempt to navigate the circles and triangles do you realize the one way nightmare that still gives me chills in the night when I remember living there. God what I would have given for a GPS.
My hero in the realm of urban design is a landscape architect few outside of the profession have ever heard of even though millions enjoy his spaces every year. His name was Frederick Law Olmstead and he was a genius in the way he conceived of spaces that fit not only with people but with the environment around it.
Olmstead's projects dot America and are manifested in numerous parks and university campuses. His crowning jewel was Central Park in New York and a design plan he did for the World Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago IL in 1893. In the 1930's his son's who continued his work attempted to submit a design plan for the city of Los Angeles that if implemented would have made the city one of the most beautiful in America. Sadly the powers at be chose a different direction. Olmstead believed in connecting green space like concrete highways today connect people. They would be causeways for people, animals and the environment.
Today Las Vegas is on the verge of reinventing itself. To be fair Las Vegas seems to reinvent itself with the frequency of a four year old asking for candy in the grocery store aisle yet this time it feels different. One of the things I have enjoyed experiencing while visiting Las Vegas over the years is how I can perceive change. Often cities evolve so slowly it might take a lifetime to see real differences yet for this desert outpost this constant doesn't seem to ring true. Mentioning Las Vegas in casual conversation always seems to illicit a smile. It is a wink and a nod smile that says oh I know LV. It is where adults go to play. It is where you drink and do things you never would at home. Typically it is followed by the over used cliche "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." followed by a wink. In truth aside from a strip club or two and more alcohol in a week than I drink in a year I have yet to discover true debauchery yet I can always hope!
A few years back the whispers started of Zappos impending arrival. Zappos is a shoe and now apparel Internet company that is famous for its customer service. Most people simply know it by the funny name and how they always see it connected with Amazon.com. For a number of years its customer service operations have been located in the suburb of Henderson. Henderson is where normal Las Vegas people live. It is where the people that make everything work for the millions of tourists that visit go home to sleep. The company is headed by Tony Hsieh an enterprising Chinese American that has made fortunes two times over. I am always attracted to people with visions that extend far beyond themselves. Like Fredrick Olmstead, Tony Hsieh sees his business as a simple route to a higher calling. His vision of corporate responsibility and role within a society has led him to a unique perspective largely alien in American corporate life. It is one that believes in not only caring for his own employees, it believes in caring for the society around it.
This all starts to warp the capitalist mind. In America we are taught that capitalism is a drive for ever increasing wealth and any personal responsibility is a kind of bonus largely realized through the philanthropy of some individuals. While Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have pledged their fortunes to philanthropy others like the Walton family (Walmart) amass their riches and wonder what their money can't buy. There is really no long term plan for society in their view, more a short term strategy to bank the greatest fortunes the world has ever seen. For Americans the world is defined into capitalism/money good socialism/government bad. Suddenly along comes a successful businessman that redefines everything. He does this by instituting a corporate philosophy that is built around the customer, the employee and social responsibility. For Zappos, the following ten "commandments" are their corporate creed.
I have been struggling to come to grasp with it all. Companies are simply not supposed to be like this and the eternal skeptic in myself loves to rear its ugly head. In my experience anything a company says or does in America is designed to improve the bottom line. Anything else that occurs during the process is simply a bi-product of wealth. Truth be told, employees mean nothing. They are disposable commodities and when juxtaposed against short term profit, profit wins every time. Yet here is this company that not only professes to care for its employees with an almost cult like obsession, it takes care of its customers AND it seeks to change society around it.
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| A Happy Zappos employee in her native land |
The proof of this came when Zappos decided to act against all corporate wisdom and leave its safe business park haven in suburban Henderson and move it's entire corporate structure to a part of Las Vegas known for drinking, gambling, homelessness and poverty. The company bought the old city hall building and commenced gutting it to create a corporate office space that emphasized employees and communication over all else. You see, Zappos is simply like no company I have ever seen. Employees are structured in teams and given full control over their environment. They decorate it wildly and sitting among them in a nearly wall-less place is Tony Hsieh. He draws a salary of $36,000 a year, sits in a cubical and lives the humility he preaches.
My first reaction was one of a feeling of ridiculousness. "How could this place even function?" I asked myself, the product of 23 years of government service. I kept catching myself wondering if I was being indoctrinated into a cult. Was it only a matter of time before I would be approaching people in airports and shopping malls? The funny thing was, everything seemed to make sense in a weird offbeat sort of way. This was a company that took care of its employees like none I had ever seen in my life. They provide full match retirement programs and health benefits that far surpassed mine even as a much maligned government employee. The company hosts a bistro and cafe with free food for everyone employed. Above all else, when you looked around at the faces of the cubicle workers you could not help but notice that the employees were happy.
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| Ogden Building, Las Vegas NV |
Prior to my arrival and subsequent introduction to the Zappos re-invent life and work project I made contact with a young woman who works as an interface between the public and Tony Hsieh. Courtney was so warm and friendly she quickly transformed from information source to friend. I couldn't help myself and quickly breached corporate formality in communication. She became an important translator for me interpreting a corporate vocabulary I had never heard before. She also referred me to a representative of the Zappos down town vision called the Down Town Project (http://downtownproject.com). Krisse Danger took me on a tour of Tony's vision that expanded far beyond the boundaries of a shoe distribution company. From a corporate apartment in the downtown Ogden building we looked out at the vacant and decapitated remnants of a downtown that had long ago ceased to function. The walls of the apartments strung together in a wandering way were draped with artist's renderings of things to come.
I quickly determined it was more than just a dream or a vision, it was a plan. It was a methodical effort to re-engineer a city. With a 350 million dollar stake the project Tony Hsieh was not just buying a new headquarters, he was buying a downtown. Arial maps of blocks surrounded by red lines delineated Zappos territory. It was like a campaign map with various islands holding out. Everywhere there was an idea, a goal: housing for employees and the public, restaurants and shopping centers, auditoriums that would host free lectures with the goal of making people smarter. Special facilities designed to host start-up companies and an infrastructure to support them.
In a small coffee shop called The Beat one block past the end of the Fremont pedestrian zone I sat and contemplated things. I drank an Italian soda and looked around at the walls filled with an odd collection of posters and shelves of LPs for sale. Wonderfully Bohemian the shop was in the corner of a long abandoned JC Penny Department store. At the back passageways opened up to a labyrinth of small spaces rented by independent arts dealers. The next floor was dedicated to tech start ups. It was like a toe hold won by the Marines on a Pacific island in World War Two. It was an example of how in a few years downtown Las Vegas, an area almost given up for dead and clinging to life by the visionary Fremont Street Project was going to be more than just music, drinking and gambling. It was going to become a living community of thought, arts and intellectualism. It was going to be a place where people lived and worked. There might even be schools again and grocery stores.
Las Vegas is not my home but at times it feels like it is. As the city grows I feel like I grow and as this latest "metastasorphosis" takes place I must admit, it excites me more than the booze and gambling does. With Fredrick Olmstead looking over his shoulder from the heavens I think Tony Hsieh just might have figured it out. If he has, America may find in his canvas a blueprint for the rest of our nation. I watch eagerly and with all humility jump up and down consumed by the energy and smiles of all the Zappos employees. If they are a cult, I kind of want to join.
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