LV versus NY

I was interested that the opening of CityCenter in Las Vegas prompted comparisons with the World Trade Center. The collaborative love-fest among the starchitect participants in CityCenter was also contrasted with the various forced marriages that have dogged the WTC since Herbert Muschamp first convened his ideas competition. As I recall, the strongest entry was Norman Foster's twin-tower "kiss" - produced without partners. Other pairings, right up to the Freedom Tower and its proposed neighbors, seem stillborn in comparison. And almost nothing has been built. Meanwhile, MGM MIRAGE got CityCenter done in five years. Of course, Las Vegas is a completely different development context from New York. (Ironically, I remember listening - in 1999 - to the real estate honcho of a big German bank wax nostalgic about how easy it was to build in Manhattan compared to Frankfurt. I guess these things are relative.)