Royal Flush

This thesis investigates the intersection of water consumption and waste on the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, a fabricated oasis of pleasure and consumption visited by more than 41 million tourists annually. In the face of increasing drought and water shortages in the American West, the current architecture of the strip conceals and ignores water use, furthering our ignorance of diminishing freshwater resources and burying the complex and critical infrastructure that allow desert cities to exist. Through the design of a combined wastewater treatment facility and resort experience, architecture becomes a platform to expose and celebrate water resources and the processes that make potable water possible in America's driest city.