Post #580900 by telescopes on Sat, Mar 19, 2011 10:25 AM

Back to the topic of the Sahara!

When I was in High School, a fairly new high school at that, I remember talking to the counselor about the poor condition of the school and how run down it looked. He said something that has stayed with me. "Low cost, high maintenance."

When I studied school architecture while working on my doctorate in education, my class was taught by the gentleman who designed Bush Stadium in St. Louis. The topic came up again. Sadly, we all know what happened to that iconic stadium. It was torn down, having served it's "half-life". It too, was an example of low cost, high maintenance.

Vegas is probably the best example of this philosophy and this probably explains why so many of the buildings are torn down. The upkeep expenses rot away your profits. It's cheaper to start over.

And start over they do.

Even the White House, the iconic symbol of American Government, had to be totally rebuilt at expense that blew past the price of simply building a new house. But, then again, it was the White House and that symbol wasn't going to be remade.

There are examples of High Cost, low maintenance in America - The Hoover Dam, The Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore, and the Saint Louis Arch, but even the first two require quite a bit of maintenance. But they were all build to last for centuries.

I think our problem as Americans is that we don't think several generations into the future. We think about us and we think about us in the now.

Does it make sense to a business person to really fix up the Sahara only to sell it at a loss to someone else? Look at the Tonga Room. Does it make any financial sense to the owners of the Fairmont not to change it into condos?

Unless the public is willing to purchase the Sahara and maintain it, I really don't think there is much we can do. Someday, it will be Caesars Palace or the Bellagio that will be torn down.