Arcosanti: The City That Thought Different

Out in the high desert along Interstate Seventeen, a half-built city rises from the mesa. This is Arcosanti, the life's work of Italian architect Paolo Soleri.

Soleri trained under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in the nineteen forties, then broke from his mentor to develop his own idea: arcology, a blend of architecture and ecology. The concept was dense, human-scaled cities that consume almost no land or energy. In nineteen seventy, he broke ground here on a model town designed to house five thousand people.

Fifty-plus years later, Arcosanti has held only about fifty to one hundred fifty residents. It never reached its target. But students still arrive for workshops, about forty thousand tourists have stopped each year, and the community funds itself by casting bronze wind bells Soleri designed, sold worldwide.

Incomplete, idealistic, and still standing. Exactly as planned, or not quite. Depending on who you ask.