New Echelon

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NEW ECHELON

DANIEL LASTER

DEGREE PROJECT 2013

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New Echelon: Establishing An Infrastructural Persistence In The E p h e m e ra l L a s Ve g a s S t r i p Submitted in Partial FulďŹ llment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture in the Department of Architecture of the Rhode Island School of Design. Daniel James Laster 2013

M a s t e r ’s E x a m i n a t i o n C o m m i t t e e Pari Riahi Assistant Professor Department of Architecture Rhode Island School of Design Thesis es s Coordinator Coo d a o

Thomas Gardener Critic Department of Architecture Rhode Island School of Design Primary Advisor

Silvia Acosta Professor Department of Architecture Rhode Island School of Design Secondary Advisor

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NEW ECHELON

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I met a person the other day who had never had an education, and that person, without question, has a remarkable mind—one that needs but a single, tiny fragment of knowledge in order to piece together the most fantastic sense of order. And why should that be so very, very peculiar? After all, the Greeks didn’t have the knowledge that we have now,

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and look what mar velous things they did, only because the mind was highly respected. Somehow or other, because of frugality, because you haven’t got so many things to choose from, you begin to think of how gloriously you can express, with the little time you have, the nature of man’s strivings to express his will to live.1 -Louis Kahn

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Ruins don’t encourage you to dwell on w hat they were like in their heyday, before they were ruins. The Colosseum in Rome or the amphitheater at Leptis Magna have never been any thing but r uins. They’re eternal r uins. It’s the same here. This building could never have looked more magnificent than it doe s now, sur rounded by it s ow n silence. Ruins don’t make you think of the past, they direc t you tow ard the future. The effect is almost prophetic. This is what the future will end up like. This is w hat the future has alw ays ended up looking like. 2 -Geof f D yer 11


TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

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Abstract

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The City of Collective Amnesia

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New Echelon

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Site Analysis

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Reclamation Plant

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The Water Towers

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The Solar Tower

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Final Model

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Footnotes

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Bibliography

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Mentors


ABSTRACT

DP Probe: Simulated Entropy, 2012

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Las Vegas entered a new era following the 2008 financial crisis, which led to the indefinite suspension of several large-scale casinos projects. Echelon Place, in particular, became an unintentionally infamous monument to the recession. While its economy has recently improved, the city remains dependent on its tourism industry, a scarce water supply and fossil fuel energy. Fortunately, new infrastructural projects have already begun to provide sustainable energy in the Nevada desert, such as the Crescent Dunes solar tower project located between Las Vegas and Reno. As an infrastructural mega-project, this project is expected to generate tourism on its own. Other types of infrastructure, such as water treatment, still have yet to integrate public accessibility. Rather than constructing this infrastructure away from the city, this thesis

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proposes to integrate it with Echelon Place, creating a complex of environments both publically accessible from the Strip and regionally applicable to the Mojave Desert. How could Las Vegas transition from an economy reliant on tourism into a selfsustaining economy of energy and water independence?


THE CITY OF COLLECTIVE AMNESIA

The City of Collective Memory

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On a calm night in Las Vegas, fireworks suddenly erupted from a dark and abandoned hotel. Crowds cheered as the 48-year old Stardust Hotel and Casino quickly began to disintegrate. The 32-story tower was constructed as a hotel expansion in 1991. The Stardust was once the home of the illusionist duo Siegfried and Roy. Even at its final decade, its theater showcased famous entertainers including Wayne Newton and George Carlin. The property was demolished to make way for a four billion dollar 5,300-room casino complex called Echelon Place. The unforeseen financial crisis of 2008 eventually caused the construction of Echelon Place to halt indefinitely. The project soon became an unintentionally infamous monument to the recession. Prior to the financial crisis, it was common for Las Vegas casino owners to raze their existing buildings to make way for a bigger resort. As of this writing, however, The Stardust was

Stardust Implosion Las Vegas, 2007

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the last casino to be imploded on the Strip. Other halted resorts such as Fontainebleau and the 400-condo St. Regis remain as unfinished structures. This stubborn preference to refuse to utilize existing architectural structures, even partially, removes the possibility for the resorts like the Stardust to be distinguished by past, present and future generations. In terms of collective memory, the physical places which were once tied to the Stardust’s 50 year history have been severed. Echelon Place’s steel-frame structure and deserted foundation stands as a ruin that lacks history, disconnected and inaccessible to the public. The implosion of the Stardust symbolizes a naïve tendency to dismiss inherited structures in favor of the “new.” While Las Vegas’s economy has improved since 2008, the city remains dependent on its tourism industry, a diminish-

Echelon Place, 2006 Render

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ing water supply. It cannot be understated that Las Vegas will face major challenges related to water within the decade. The issue at hand is Lake Mead, Las Vegas’ supplier for 90% of its drinking water. According to researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lake Mead has a 50% chance of going dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water usage is not curtailed3. Even now, Lake Mead is struggling to maintain its dwindling water levels. “[Lake Mead’s] water level will soon drop below one of the city’s two pipelines. So they’re building a third pipe, except this one will come up from underneath the lakebed, like a drain. Even that may not be enough — Lake Mead could be empty as early as 2021. So the city has hatched a scheme for a 300-mile pipeline that will siphon water from the eastern half of the state to the Strip.” If these issues go unad

Echelon Place, February 2013

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Crescent Dunes Render

Crescent Dunes Solar Project, Tonopah, NV

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dressed, a mass exodus in population may occur, forcing Las Vegas to fall into the shadows of Detroit or worse. In addition to solving an inevitable water shortage, a reliance on fossil fuel energy has dramatically increased the output of carbon emissions in cities like Las Vegas. The air-conditioned suburbs of Southern Nevada rely on energy sources continuously throughout the year. Meanwhile, new infrastructural projects have already begun to provide sustainable energy in the Nevada desert, such as the Crescent Dunes solar energy plant located between Las Vegas and Reno. This infrastructural megaproject consists of a 640 foot-tall concrete solar tower encircled with 17,500 reflective heliostats. It is expected to generate enough energy to power 80,000 homes while doubling as an infrastructural tourist attraction, similar to the Hoover Dam. As Las

Vegas shows no signs of falling into an energy crisis, it primarily relies on carbon emitting fossil fuel energy, as the city is powered almost entirely by natural gas.4 Fortunately, Southern Nevada already has the means necessary to transition itself from a city threatened by water scarcity and fossil-fuel dependence into a self-sustaining economy. Rather than constructing new infrastructural wonders like Crescent Dunes away from the city, this thesis proposes to integrate similar typologies within the Las Vegas Strip. To test this idea, the incomplete Echelon Place site will be reprogrammed as New Echelon, integrating a complex of environments both publicly accessible and regionally sensitive to the Mojave Desert.

Hoover Dam & Pat Tillman Bridge, Lake Mead, 2013

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NEW ECHELON

Concept: Infrastructural Park shaded by Elevated Heliostats

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New Echelon transforms the existing structures of Echelon Place into a self-powered water collection and treatment plant. It is powered by a solar tower built atop the former hotel’s central elevator shaft. This tower receives sunlight reflected by over one thousand heliostats surrounding the site. Inside the tower is a molten salt tank, which retains the heat collected from the sun for up to 12 hours. Standard energy practices follow: the heat converts water into steam which is used for a turbine, transmitting energy to power on-site utilities. The energy collected by the tower would be used the power a water treatment plant, which would reclaim the structure that was designated for casino space. If rainfall temporarily slows energy production, the existing power plant could be used. Meanwhile, rain water would be collected into three large stepwells and eventually pumped into a cor

Elevated Heliostat Array, Stepwells, Neon Graveyard

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View facing the Southern Water Tower

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responding water tower. The water towers would protect the water from evaporation. Like the solar tower, the water towers would be surrounded by publically accessible indoor spas, steam rooms, and pools. To treat the water for consumption, it would run through a central filtration facility built from Echelon Place’s existing casino structure. Once cleaned, the water would be used in various water related facilities throughout the complex. The elevated heliostats surrounding the site not only redirect sunlight, but provide ample shade. This increases the thermal comfort for a park situated in a desert climate, making New Echelon an accessible public place even during the summer months. Because the heliostats revolve around the central solar tower, shade would be cast in many rows of circular paths. While the park would contain many pathways designated by material, one can still traverse one

Solar Tower Section

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Spa Interior Former Hotel Tower

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of many shaded pathways for unique and ephemeral ways to experience the site during the day. The existing structures of New Echelon would be used to transform the property from an unfinished casino into a public place blurring public and private space. The architectural structures would be primarily openair, with air-conditioning kept at a minimum. By integrating water and energy infrastructure with existing and unused projects, the timeworn typologies of southern Nevada would evolve from depending on an economy of tourism to an economy of

Early Longitudinal Section

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energy and water indepdence, thus ensuring the longevity of the desert city. Properties like the Stardust will not be considered as a hinderence but as an opportunity to transform a pathological persistence into a dynamic persistence.


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S I T E A N A LY S I S LAS VEGAS STRIP

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s studio visit to the Strip in 1968, and the publication that followed4, still remains as one of the few academic contributions to Las Vegas’ architectural discourse. The couple were interested in how the automobile changed the perception of experiencing the city. While Los Angeles was considered as the pinnacle of car-catered urban planning, Las Vegas, according to Venturi, was smaller, easier to study during a brief visit5. Few buildings which Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s Yale studio visited exist today.

1968

The Strip, the most infamous center of tourism and entertainment in the United States has persisted as an urban anomaly within the metropolitan area of Las Vegas. The ephemeral nature of this resort boulevard stabilized following the 2008 financial crisis, when numerous resort developments were either put on hold or cancelled entirely. Some of these resorts include: Fontainebleau, Echelon Place, Station’s VIVA, Caesar’s Palace’s Octavius Tower, and the St. Regis Residences at The Palazzo. One of the only mega-resorts that to survive the recession was CityCenter Las Vegas. At 9.2 billion dollars, CityCenter is the largest privately funded building project in the history of the United States. When it opened in 2009, CityCenter introduced six thousand hotel rooms into an oversaturated hotel market. If Echelon Place was to be redeveloped, introducing more hotel rooms to the Strip would be redundant. Other programs should be considered.

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2012

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One Mile


S I T E A N A LY S I S

Echelon Place Site Casino / Commercial Property Abandoned / Stalled Resorts

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S I T E A N A LY S I S

Echelon Place Site Casino / Commercial Property Abandoned / Stalled Resorts

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WINTER SOLSTICE

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ECHELON PLACE - EXISTING

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ECHELON PLACE - EXISTING

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S I T E S T R AT E G Y

Located north of the Encore Resort and Fashion Show Mall, and south of Circus Circus, the Echelon Place site bridges one of the only remaining gaps of Las Vegas Boulevard. Directly to the south of Echelon Place is a vacant plot of land which, if left undeveloped, would allow for sunlight to easily access during the winter. This allows plentiful sunlight to land on the existing site throughout the year, even during the winter solstice as seen on page 35.

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S o l a r To w e r P r o j e c t Molten Salt Tank Steam Room Spa Rooms Indoor Pool Heliostat Array

Wa t e r R e c l a m a t i o n P l a n t

Water ClariďŹ ers Elevated Pathways Water Aerators

Wa t e r C o l le c t i o n Stepwell (Typ.) West Water Tower Bridges South Water Tower Stardust Memorial East Water Tower

Existing Structures Convention Center Power Plant Performance Hall Parking Garage Casino Hotel Retaining Walls

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ECHELON PLACE SITE PLAN

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ECHELON PLACE GROUND PLAN

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R E C L A M AT I O N P L A N T DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Aerator Passageway March 2013

Water Aerators Longitudinal Section April 2013 46


Water Aerator May 2013

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R E C L A M AT I O N P L A N T DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Water Treatment Plant Watercolor on Paper 12”x16” 48


Water Treatment Plant Watercolor on Paper 12”x16” 49

Water Treatment Plant Cross Section


R E C L A M AT I O N P L A N T DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Water Treatment Plant under the Heliostat Array, Concept Render

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R E C L A M AT I O N P L A N T PROPOSAL

Water Aerator Cross Section Watercolor on Paper 13”x33” 52


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T H E W AT E R T O W E R S DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

The Water Towers began as a formal exercise to reposition the archetypical cylindrical vessel to allow for public accessibility above and below the tower. Simple forms were used for their recognizability in vast distances. The forms began as a cube, a cylinder, and a cone, and were tinkered in multiple iterations.

South Tower

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East Tower

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West Tower


T H E W AT E R T O W E R S DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Three water towers were designed to integrate the functional requirements of a water storage tank with inhabitable spaces. These spaces would be perform as spas, baths, and other water related functions. The three water towers are located on the south, west, and east portions of the site an are named with respect to their location. The footprint of their surrounding stepwells generated the form which they took.

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T H E W AT E R T O W E R S DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Water Tower Generative Studies

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Chosen design for the South Tower

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THE SOLAR TOWER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Underneath the solar tower will be a series of spaces that relate to water. Spas, baths, and pools were initially proposed. To generate spatial ideas, a series of experiential vignettes were created by using a modified version of Richard Serra’s Verb List Compilation. This modified list strictly related to water. 62


Each experience was sorted would work best with each program. The existing tower was drawn to place the vignettes.

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THE SOLAR TOWER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Solar Tower Concept Development

Solar Tower I Graphite on Paper 12”x32” 64


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Aerator Concept Development

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Aerator Concept Watercolor on Paper 12”x16” 67


THE SOLAR TOWER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Central Core Approach

Solar Tower Approach

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Indoor Pool

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View from Indoor Pool


Hotel Spa Conversion Watercolor on Paper 12”x16” 70


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THE SOLAR TOWER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Solar Tower Concept Development

Solar Tower II Watercolor on Paper 12”x32” 72


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Solar Tower III Graphite on Paper 25”x42” 75

Indoor Pool Digital Render


FINAL MODEL

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FOOTNOTES

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1.

Kahn, Louis. ‘Remarks’ (1965), in Latour. Louis I. Kahn: Writings, op. cit., 205-6.

2.

Dyer, Geoff. Yoga for people who can’t be bothered to do it. New York: Vintage Books, 2004. Print.

3.

“Lake Mead Could Be Dry by 2021.” Scripps Oceanography News. Scripps Oceanography, 12 Feb. 2008. Web. 14 April 2013.

4.

“Our Power Supply.” NVEnergy.com. NV Energy, Jan.-Feb. 2013. Web.

5.

Venturi, Robert, Denise Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas : the forgotten symbolism of architectural form. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1977. Print.

6.

Rattenbury, Kester, and Samantha Hardingham. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown : Learning from Las Vegas. Abingdon England New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1.

Brownlee, David, De Long, David. Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (New York: Rizzoli, 1991)

2.

Burton, Joseph. 1980. “Notes from Volume Zero: Louis Kahn and the Language of God.” Perspecta 17 : the Yale architectural journal. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. No. 17: 69-90.

3.

4.

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Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory. (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1992). Translated from: Les Cadres Sociaux de la Mémoire, (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1952). Kahn, Louis. ‘Remarks’ (1965), in Latour. Louis I. Kahn: Writings, op. cit., 205-6.

5.

Lobsinger, Mary Louise. 2002. “That Obscure Object of Desire: Autobiography and Repetition in the Work of Aldo Rossi.” Grey Room no. 8: 38-61.

6.

Olick, Jeffrey K., Robbins, Joyce. Social Memory Studies: From “Collective Memory” to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices. Annual Review of Sociology, (Vol. 24, 1998), p. 111.

7.

Petersson, Anna, and Carola Wingren. “Designing a memorial place: Continuing care, passage landscapes and future memories.” Mortality 16, no. 1 (February 2011): 54-69.

8.

Roberts, Mary N., Roberts, Allen F., Memory : Luba art and the making of history. New York: Museum for African Art, 1996.

9.

Rossi, Aldo. The architecture of the city. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1982.

10.

Sandler, Daniela. “Counterpreservation.” Third Text 25, no. 6 (November 2011).

11.

Stilgenbauer, Judith. Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord—Duisburg, Germany. EDRA / Places 17 No3. 2005.

12.

Smith, Joel. The life and death of buildings : on photography and time. Princeton, N.J. New Haven: Princeton University Art Museum Distributed by Yale University Press, 2011.

13.

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and contradiction in architecture. New York New York: Museum of Modern Art in association with the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 1990.

14.

Wiseman, Carter. Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007).


MENTORS

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1987

Mom

2002

George DeFrancesco

2006

Glenn N.P. Nowak

2008

Mary Warner

2008

Martina Tabó

2010

Mairéad Byrne

2011

Peter Dorsey

2011

Jennifer Peterson

2011

Kristopher Stuart

2012

Paola Demattè

2012

Nick Winton

2013

Thomas Gardener


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Las Vegas entered a new era following the 2008 ďŹ nancial crisis, which led to the indeďŹ nite halts of several large scale casino-resorts. Echelon Place, in particular, became an unintentionally infamous monument to the recession. While its economy has recently improved, the city remains dependent on its tourism industry, a scarce water supply and fossil fuel energy. Fortunately, new infrastructural projects have already begun to provide sustainable energy in the Nevada desert, such as the Crescent Dunes solar tower project located between Las Vegas and Reno. As an infrastructural mega-project, this project is expected to generate tourism on its own. Other types of infrastructure, such as water treatment, still have yet to integrate public accessibility. Rather than constructing this infrastructure away from the city, this thesis proposes to integrate it with Echelon Place, creating a complex of environments both publically accessible from the Strip and regionally applicable to the Mojave Desert. How could Las Vegas transition from an economy reliant on tourism into a self-sustaining economy of energy and water independence? 92


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