Archinect - News

Visionary architect Paolo Soleri has died at 93

2013-04-09T17:45:00-04:00

Visionary architect Paolo Soleri,the Italian-born designer of the experimental Arizona city near Cordes Junction called Arcosanti, died Tuesday. He was 93. Arcosanti officials confirmed the death in a statement. Soleri, one of the last living direct disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed a $3.5 million pedestrian bridge in Scottsdale - Soleri Bridge & Plaza, the only completed bridge of the hundreds he designed. It is located southwest of Camelback and Scottsdale roads.

Interview with Jeff Stein on Soleri’s Model Sustainable City

2012-10-25T18:12:00-04:00

Arcosanti, some 42 years after it first was begun in 1970, is just a tiny fragment of what it intends to become — a town for a few thousand people. Right now, we’re at a population of a little less than 100. It’s pretty easy at that small scale to join architecture and ecology, but we have in mind some bigger ideas. While they certainly come from Paolo Soleri, they also come from Henry David Thoreau.

Arcosanti “urban laboratory" or a retirement tower for golf-shy retirees?

2012-02-17T13:41:00-05:00

Mr. Soleri, however, will discuss his marvelous, flawed creation with disarming frankness. Has Arcosanti, for instance, lived up to its potential? “No. Don’t be silly,” he said, and then laughed.

Michael Tortorello recently visited Arcosanti to check in on the status of the famed, Utopian urban laboratory. He finds it in transition as last fall, Mr. Soleri finally retired (at age 92) as the president of the Cosanti Foundation. Jeff Stein, 60, formerly dean of the Boston Architectural College, is the foundation’s new president and under his guidance, the foundation is beginning to explore ways of developing a more profitable, privatized or at least self-sustaining model for shaping Arcosanti's future.

Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Design

2012-01-16T15:56:00-05:00

In the last decade, much has been written about architecture for the greater good, and it would seem that the field, as a whole, is invested in bringing design to underserved communities. Yet all of this talk — at conferences, in the press, at universities — has focused hardly at all on how to put together a career in social design.

On Places, Virginia Tech graduate Will Holman gives an honest report of his experiences volunteering, studying and working at Arcosanti, Rural Studio, and Youth Build. Does the architecture profession need to do more to support young architects who take this path?