I'm a lucky boy! My mom took us campming every Summer for a month,
just as her parents packed her and her siblings into the model T and camped across the whole country.

I wish camping and exploration of outdoors for all children!

My Grandfather lived in Sedona so I was swimming and playing with snakes in Oak Creek Canyon when I was wee. Must-see pics of the narrows.

Arcosante was one of many sites we sites we visited in between southwest geographical, cultural, and bilogical wonders!

We visited Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, Mohave, so many lands to explore and respect.
Klamath, Pomo, Chinook. Spoiled boy; Redwoods and deep forests were normal for me. I craved high deserts, mountains, rocks, canyons with visible geology.

And we live on Ohlone land ( SF, East Bay ), near Miwok land ( Marin ).

As a child, my eyes were filled with the beauty of this land.

As an adult, I am working to protect it.

Thanks mom!

I visited there in September 1981 after a Radical Faeries gathering in New Mexico. The fellow who was head carpenter then was at the gathering, so we stopped to visit on the way back to San Francisco.

I later roomed with an enthusiast, and his large format
plan book c. 1980 that I inherited from him, sits on my coffee table.

In 1968/9, when Paolo had an exhibit at a Modern Art Gallery in D.C. I invited him to speak at Georgetown (a student govt. honorarium), his book had just come out, "City in the image of...".

Then I finally visited in 96. I found Rainbow and the ancient well, Montezuma's Well to be even more exciting that ARCO. Got to see the turtle swim across the pond.

Now I'm pitching density concepts to the City Council in order to preserve Ag land. You'd be real helpful if you'd use your academic association to back me up. I'm just a local with wild ideas.

Michael

Hi Desiree,
My name is Anastazia Louise and I am an ullum. from Arco and I was at the Group motion workshop a couple years ago with you. I am in Prescott, I remember you and Nathan. Let's connect!
Anastazia

I first learned about Paolo Soleri, arcology and Arcosanti in an art class I took at a community college in Florida in the early '80s. I don't know how much, if any, of Arcosanti existed physically (as opposed to conceptually) at that point. Eight years ago I met the man who is now my husband. When we moved in together, he hung a Soleri bell in the foyer of our apartment. I asked him about it, and he said it was given to him by Paolo Soleri himself, and that my husband, who was a book publisher at the time, had worked on a book with and about Paolo Soleri. I'll have to check with him now for the title of the book and if it ever went to print.

I first visited Arcosanti in 2000 on a field trip with my Energy and Environment class at ASU. I've stopped by a couple times since to show some friends what a great venue it would make for small music and performace events. Hopefully soon we'll be able to come do a show at Arco!

I actually found out about it through SimCity, which featured Arcology as something you could build in one of their versions. When I was in Beijing studying Chinese someone told me where the idea came from and that there was one under construction in Arizona. I did a summer workshop program in July and August of 1998. Coincidentally I ended up befriending someone named Nathan that I have since fallen out of touch with. I also ended up studying Urban Planning after the whole experience and actually applied to Portland State. I ended up going to Ohio State, though, because it was cheaper. Portland State is supposed to have one of the best Urban Planning programs in the country, though.
-Justin

This is a long story with many paths.

Originally, I heard about Arcosanti through one of my best friends, the artist Alison King. She and her husband Matthew, pre-marriage, had lived at Arcosanti for a summer, etching paths into the hills and doing construction work. Ali told me the experience helped her to see the worst and best in herself. She said the combination of humble living quarters and harsh climate taught her to look at herself with steady, fierce eyes. I was at a point in my life where I needed that. I was working in state government as a legislative aide, and was not, as Joseph Campbell says, "following my bliss." It took me two years to save the money and go to a workshop. I attended and felt like I needed more time with the place.

So, I spent the summer welding in hundred plus degree weather, perching on the edges of buildings to get my job done right. Then, Dr. Soleri offered me a job as an editor of his books. I had a publishing background and leapt at the chance. I've lived at Arco three-and-a-half years. Currently, I work in the ceramics department, carving bells and pouring molds. I am making my plans to leave.

Being there has changed my life in good, solid ways. I get frustrated and go through the growing pains that everyone there does, but I love all that I've learned and seen.

I wouldn't change it for the world.

Howdy Desiree & all,

I'm new on tribe. What an awesome topic to connect over! I've felt connected to and excited about Arcosanti for such a long time, but have rarely met anyone, outside of AZ, who had even heard of it. In fact, my favorite outdoor amphitheatre in the world is nearby in Santa Fe, named The Paolo Soleri, and most people don't even who know what that name means.

Anyway, while in high school in NJ, 16 in 1979, I took a vacation way out in AZ with my family, while brother enrolled in ASU. I went solo and took this wild, day-long bus tour of AZ that hit Montezuma's Castle (I hate that name), Sedona (bought my first piece of Navajo jewelry) and Jerome. While on the bus, I floored by this story of this [visionary or madman] that had started to build a self-contained city of the future. I started making regular pilgrimages to Sedona and Arcosanti after moving to Albuquerque in 93, with my family having relocated to metro Phx. Basically, I make excuses to get to northern AZ no matter to hike in Sedona and show off Arcosanti.

In spring 05, I realized a dream, having my band, Mystery School, play there. We got to slum in the then-new dorms and we had the honor of standing in during the morning staff meeting. I also went stayed in a guest room with my then-gf and took the time to walk down to see the animals and that scene.

I always get inspired when I'm there and always experience cool synchronicities when I'm there. One thing that has struck me over time, is that I have heard conflicting stories about politics within the organization. I've heard about a high turnover in staff because of control issues/ change being resisted. Multiple people, while living there, have told me about this and then apparently split. But then a couple of others have denied this and said that the project was mostly limited just because nobody was going to through enough money in to make it reach Paolo's goals.

I'd be very interested to hear what y'all have experienced on that.

namaste,
Matthew

My grandpa had a lot to do with it. He gave me a book of Paolo Soleri's sketchbooks when I was in high school. It was my first teenage glimpse that something existed outside the typical midwestern suburban sprawl that I abhorred :) I grew up out in the country, the closest city was Chicago and we'd drive past the pollution of the steel mills along the southern tip of Lake Michigan to get there. Something about it made my skin crawl, even before I knew why.. Then I got that book, and a lightbulb in my brain lit up, sort of shifted my thinking away from blind acceptance that uniform boxes was the way it had to be...

I first learned about Cosanti:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosanti
in about 1973 when I lived in Paradise Valley, and from that I learned about Arcosanti in Mayer, Az area. I went to a lot of concerts and used to visit there a lot during the middle to late seventies and visited sporadically during the eighties. Was last there sometime in 1997 or so, I guess visiting with my pregnant wife, to show her what it was like. I have never lost my obsession or fascination for the place. my fondest memory of there happened in about October 1988 when I climbed the cliff opposite (south) from Arco and sat there to eat lunch. While sitting there in the afternoon, the harvest moon rose over my right shoulder, and the whole place looked like a scene from another planet. Had no camera, but I would have loved to have a picture to remember that by...a very magical moment!

I think I saw a reference to Arcology in the Whole Earth Catalog in the '70's. In '78 or so I stumbled over a copy of Arcology: City in the Image of Man in the Palo Alto library. It was just the thing for a sci-fi enthusiast with an environmental bent. I became enamored with the idea immediately, and acquired a copy of my own.

Fast forward several years to the late '80's; I was gratified to see an arcology referenced in the Sprawl in one of William Gibson's cyberpunk novels. It validated my belief that the world would soon catch up to Soleri's vision.

Fast forward some more years to the late '90's. My in-laws moved to Scottsdale, and I visit with them there regularly. One of our first visits was at FRank Loyd Wright's Taliesin West. It was a treat for me, I enjoy seeing and learning about architecture. My mother-in-law mentioned that Arcosanti was not far away, and that I might enjoy visiting there. But it wasn't that close either, when we visit we focus on family and don't venture far from the yucky Phoenix metro area.

Last week we went down to visit over 4th of July weekend. We went up to Flagstaff to visit with friends, never been up that way before. The grandparents took the kids back to Scottsdale and cut us loose. We learned that we not only could visit Arcosanti but could rent a room there. So we made reservations.

MEANWHILE I became involved with a theme camp that is registered to be at Burning Man this year (Kingdom of Loafington: www.loafington.wordpress.com). I saw that the "Arconauts" had a theme camp registered there also. I thought, "cool, I'll have to check them out while I''m there." Then I realized that since I will be staying at Arcosanti, it would be thoughtful to drop the Arconaut contact person a line and let them know we'll be there in case they might want to check in with a fellow burner.

So I did, and got an immediate, welcoming reply. We made the connection, visited with some wonderful, cool, interesting, creative, fun and warmly hospitable people. I think we made some new friends. We plan to keep in touch, and defintiely will get together at Burning Man this year.

AND of course, I got to spend some quality time exploring the spaces, enjoying the vistas, and soaking up all the neat and stimulating details of the community.

After all these years, to finally visit a place that has always had a special place in my heart, and to do it in a way that allowed me to connect in a very fundamental way with some of the people who are living it and making it happen. It was so gratifying to learn that we are much on the same waveling (no surprise really) and that sustainability, permaculture, and related concepts that are essential for our future are being advanced there. It took a long time to get there, but I think that this has been the right time.

I'll be back. And hope to play some small but useful role in maintaining forward progress.