UNLV’s Frazier Hall something worth saving

To the editor:

It is a mistake to assume that UNLV's Maude Frazier Hall is unimportant architecture (Geoff Schumacher column, Dec. 2). Just because opulence and exaggeration saturates architectural fashion in 2007, we should not be blind to the lean functional expressionism that distinguishes a good mid-century modern building such as Frazier Hall.

Frazier Hall was not simply a cheap temporary shed built as the first building on campus in 1957. Architects Zick and Sharp -- major Las Vegas architects of the times -- intentionally selected the clean modern look of America after World War II to inaugurate the new campus. It was a symbolic step into an optimistic future. Modernism was the style of the times -- and the style of modern Las Vegas.

Frazier Hall's simple abstract forms, carefully balancing one side against the other, subtly contrasts uncluttered horizontal and vertical lines. Its simplicity was its art, and it expressed the sleek efficiency of the new era.

It is ironic that an educational institution dedicated to maintaining and advancing the collective body of human knowledge is today leaping at the chance to bulldoze its own heritage.

Fortunately Las Vegas is beginning to wake up to its own rich mid-century architectural heritage. The Las Vegas Junior League has restored the Morelli House, and new projects such as City Center openly borrow their aesthetic from the same simple mid-century modern forms that inspired Frazier Hall.

Unquestionably the clean architecture of Frazier Hall is now coming back into fashion.

The only question is if Frazier Hall will still be standing to be part of this revival.

ALAN HESS

IRVINE, CALIF.

THE WRITER, AN ARCHITECT, IS ARCHITECTURAL CRITIC FOR THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS AND AUTHOR OF 15 BOOKS ON 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE, INCLUDING "VIVA LAS VEGAS: AFTER HOURS ARCHITECTURE."

First film

To the editor:

In your Dec. 6 lead editorial "This land is your land?" you said Howard Hawks's "Red River" was Montgomery Clift's first film.

It wasn't.

Although they were both released the same year 1948, "The Search" was Clift's first film, and he received a best actor nomination for his performance in it.

In reference to "Red River" -- also starring John Wayne -- when I interviewed Hawks, he told me, "Wayne came to me and said, 'I don't think this kid'll work.' "

Duke was wrong. Imagine that!

Clift was memorable in both "The Search" and "Red River," but "The Search" was his debut.

Tony Macklin

LAS VEGAS

TTHE WRITER IS A FORMER FILM PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON AND A RADIO FILM CRITIC IN LAS VEGAS.

Financial handouts

To the editor:

Whatever happened to small government? The Bush administration is again "saving" financial institutions from their own poor business practices.

First, they change the bankruptcy laws making it harder for people to get out of debt granted by financial institutions to people who can't afford it -- all helping to keep profits higher.

Now, President Bush has decided that we need yet another law to lock adjustable rate mortgages at a certain level.

These financial institutions could change these adjustable rate loans to stop adjusting without more laws. Mortgages and loans are contracts between the lender and borrower. These loans were made to people who couldn't afford the payments once the interest rates adjusted. See a pattern?

While these loans were being made, the officers of these institutions and the mortgage brokers were getting huge bonuses. Now, the companies are losing money and their stock is way down. It was obvious that once interest rates went up that this exact scenario would occur.

Why don't those who profited from creating this situation give back their bonuses from the past few years instead of getting yet another handout from us? Oh, and Republicans: Let supply-side economics handle this. Let both parties feel the pain.

Bill Greene

HENDERSON