E.J. Montini | The Arizona Republic
When a dreamer like architect Paolo Soleri dies, we can’t help but wonder if his dream dies with him.
It doesn’t.
Not for Soleri.
His unfinished dream, Arcosanti, is there for anyone to see about an hour’s drive north of Phoenix in Cordes Junction.
An “urban laboratory” is what the guardians of Soleri’s dream now call it. When Soleri first started constructing Arcosanti it was meant to be model city, what he called ”arcology.” In his dreams it would house about 5,000 people in lyrically rounded and connected concrete and steel buildings that from the interstate look like part of a movie set from Star Wars.
The idea was to be self-sufficient. To rebel against unstainable urban sprawl.
But the urban sprawl is still spreading and Soleri’s gone.
