Paolo Soleri Photography by Werner Segarra

This past November, former fellows of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation gathered at Taliesin West in Scottsdale to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Taliesin Apprenticeship program and the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright; in attendance was one of Wright’s earlier students, Paolo Soleri.

Like his mentor Wright, who knew worldwide acclaim on and off throughout his career, so, too, did Soleri. And at 88 years of age he has come full circle. 

Born in Torino, Italy, in 1919, Soleri received a doctorate in architecture with honors from the Torino Liceo Artistico, Academia Albertina. In 1947, he came to the U. S. to begin his apprenticeship with Wright at Taliesin West. And so, Soleri’s lifelong connection to the desert Southwest began.
 
Though inspired by the genius of his mentor, Soleri approached urban planning fundamentally differently. While Wright’s urban ideals were American with his “Broadacre City” concepts based around automobile use, Soleri’s were primarily European and pedestrian-oriented. As a result of their philosophic differences, in 1948 the two architects parted ways.

For the next year, Soleri and fellow apprentice Mark Mills camped out in the foothills of Phoenix’s Camelback Mountain. During this period, Soleri produced a series of progressive architectural drawings titled Arizonian Portfolio, and soon landed his first commission and national acclaim for the innovative Dome House in Cave Creek, Arizona.

The following six decades would see the building of several groundbreaking Soleri structures, as well as worldwide exhibits of his conceptual cities and urban models. Of all his creations, Cosanti and Arcosanti have become the most well-known.
 
From its 1956 inception in Paradise Valley, Arizona, Cosanti served as Soleri’s residence, studio and a place for the architect to experiment with nonconventional concrete building methods. Cosanti evolved over the years as a series of concrete apses, barrel vaults and structures (including a foundry and gallery) built below-ground and surrounded by earth mounds using Soleri’s earth-casting techniques.

Phoenix-based architect Will Bruder, who apprenticed with Soleri in 1967, notes: “I learned about this genius artist/architect Paolo Soleri, and how he was crafting these unbelievable structures and forms with virtually no money, and nothing became everything. The ordinary became the extraordinary, and that was really important to me.”                     

Designed by Paolo Soleri in 1981, this multi-level central Phoenix home, known as the DeConcini House, is one of only two Soleri-designed single-family residences in the world. The angles as well as the circle, keyhole and barrel shapes are signature Soleri elements.

Cosanti remains a haven and base for Soleri; it is here that his ideas and work have thrived, and where he conceptualized and drew plans for his most ambitious endeavor, Arcosanti, near Prescott, Arizona.

Begun in 1970, Arcosanti encompasses Soleri’s concept of “arcology,” the merging of architecture with ecology. The prototype community also reflects his Lean Alternative philosophy by incorporating such elements as solar greenhouses and multipurpose buildings to demonstrate ways in which urban settings can have a less detrimental effect on the environment.

“As a fragment of the Lean Alternative town, Arcosanti is a success,” Soleri states, adding, “We need to carry on to make the project more and more persuasive.” The architect believes that Lean Alternative towns can be achieved through intelligent and thoughtful city planning and efficient consumption, thus minimizing wastefulness. Although only partially completed, the self-contained community of Arcosanti continues to attract an international base of students eager to learn and participate in Soleri’s desert laboratory.

“Paolo Soleri draws raw power from his sites,” remarks Albuquerque-based architect Antoine Predock. “The work is sculpturally differentiated from the land and yet fully a part of it . . . and at the same time, a culturally experimental diagram.”

Though some critics have referred to Soleri as a utopian dreamer, others consider him a realist. For decades, he has urged society to let go of the perception of the American Dream. “It just doesn’t work,” he states. When asked what he considers his greatest achievement, Soleri responds, “To present industrialized hyper-consuming societies the Lean Alternative being developed at Arcosanti.”

Nestled among mature trees on a large lot and boasting expansive areas of glass, the DeConcini House benefits from both the shadow play on its white exterior walls and the natural light that floods its interiors. The curved “eyebrows” serve as overhangs. The home’s simple lines are elements often found in Soleri’s designs.

In his thousands of prolific sketches, architectural drawings and writings lies a vast and complex body of significant work; these thoughtful ideologies address mankind’s outlook and what Soleri considers the inevitable metamorphosis that civilization eventually will need to take for its survival.

Soleri has received national and international recognition for his life’s accomplishments, including being named a Phoenix Home & Garden Master of the Southwest in 1996. Recently he was honored with the Smithsonian Institution’s 2006 National Lifetime Achievement Award for Design Excellence and in April will travel to the Vatican for a conference on sustainability and to Torino at the end of June to be honored by his hometown.

When asked what he would most like to be remembered for, Soleri softly responds, “History will tell.”

Scottsdale-based freelance writer Lisa A. Scafuro has more than 17 years’ experience in the architecture and construction fields. She currently is working on a documentary film titled The Vision of Paolo Soleri, scheduled for completion this fall.