Mesa City first appears in Soleri's drawings in 1955 as "Project Mesa: quest for an environment in harmony with man." Over the next five years, Soleri would draw over a thousand feet of scrolls detailing the structures and landscape of this hypothetical city.

Mesa City, plan view	Theological Center (North End)
Axial Parks	High-Learning Center (South End)
High-Learning Center (South End)	River of Waste

The Mesa City plans are generally regarded as precursors to the idea of arcology, and contain the seeds of many of Soleri's later ideas. On their own, the plans stand as a visually stunning consideration of landscape, architectural design, and large-scale urban planning.

The documentation of the Soleri Drawings has been made possible in part by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts.