# Is "Learning from Las Vegas" by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour (The MIT Press, 1972) is identified by: The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed by Muriel Cooper, bound in dark charcoal/grey cloth stamped in gold on the boards and spine and issued in a publisher's printed glassine dust jacket (printed in black and red, and very often chipped, browned, or lacking owing to its fragility). US only: MIT Press, 1972 large-format first edition is the high spot.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed by Muriel Cooper, bound in dark charcoal/grey cloth stamped in gold on the boards and spine and issued in a publisher's printed glassine dust jacket (printed in black and red, and very often chipped, browned, or lacking owing to its fragility)
- Textual points: it opens with 'A Significance for A&P Parking Lots' and contains 'Essays in the Ugly and Ordinary: Some Decorated Sheds' with Venturi & Rauch's own work — material dropped from all later editions
- The large-format Cooper design is the point that separates the 1972 first from the smaller 1977 revised paperback
- Publisher imprint reads The MIT Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour |
| Publisher | The MIT Press |
| Year | 1972 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed by Muriel Cooper, bound in dark charcoal/grey cloth stamped in gold on the boards and spine and issued in a publisher's printed glassine dust jacket (printed in black and red, and very often chipped, browned, or lacking owing to its fragility). Textual points: it opens with 'A Significance for A&P Parking Lots' and contains 'Essays in the Ugly and Ordinary: Some Decorated Sheds' with Venturi & Rauch's own work — material dropped from all later editions. The large-format Cooper design is the point that separates the 1972 first from the smaller 1977 revised paperback.

## Is this the true first?
US only: MIT Press, 1972 large-format first edition is the high spot. The 1977 'revised edition' is a smaller paperback redesigned by Denise Scott Brown with a deliberately deadpan layout — a different, later edition, not the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
MIT Press issued a facsimile of the 1972 original in 2017 (ISBN 978-0-262-03696-2) that reproduces the large-format design but adds a new Denise Scott Brown preface and a modern ISBN/printing history — identify it as the facsimile reprint, not the 1972 first. No traditional book-club edition is documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Learning from Las Vegas* by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/learning-from-las-vegas
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.