The sky is heavily overcast and it's grey and dreary, welcome rain after many month of beautiful weather without any moisture.
We continue our report from 11/28/07 of interior construction on the first floor in the back part of Unit 10 in the East Crescent.
Construction crew leader Melissa Soluski works with construction intern Cameron Wilson.

Special moisture proof drywall is cut and installed in the shower and on the bathroom walls.

The bathroom is right next to the kitchen and a small part of the upper wall is left unpaneled to accommodate some glass block to provide at least a little natural light into this room.
We continue the report on this unit on 12/5/07.

We last reported on 10/3/07 about interior construction on the first floor of Unit 10 in the East Crescent.
Crew leader Maggie Lamb directs a group of construction interns and workshop participants to continue interior finishing.

Interns Daniela Cardace and Elisabetta Quaglino cut drywall exactly to accommodate a utility panel.

Some of the November 4. workshop participants stain wooden planks. The wood will be used to cover a wall at the back entrance to this appartment.
This report continues on 11/30/07.

At Arcosanti, the traditional Thanksgiving meal is a pot-luck. Everyone either cooks something, or helps with setting up the dining area in the cafe, or helps with the enormous amount of dishes at the end of the meal.
And as in past years, people created a fantastic and very tasty array of dishes ...

... and a very delicious collection of desserts.

Many toasts were proposed and dinner was a lively occasion.
A new tradition from last year, the progressive party, started at 7 pm. Participants moved through several locations, each with special beverage and music .
Beautiful weather, wonderful food, a great bunch of people, it was a good Thanksgiving!

The Arcosanti Gardens entered both the Yavapai County and Arizona State Fairs this year and it was a great success!
The Yavapai County Fair was held in Prescott Valley in September and we won first place ribbons for: strawberry popcorn, purple Peruvian peppers, butternut squash, fresh oregano, braided garlic, dried rosemary, dried sage, garlic bulbs, and the most artistic display of vegetables. Second place ribbons were awarded for royalty purple pod beans, and sweet peppers. We also received third place ribbons for short burgundy okra, fresh rosemary, yellow pear tomatoes and Anaheim chili peppers.
Points were awarded for all first second and third place category winners and Arcosanti tied for first place overall in the vegetables category! We won a coin toss (as a tie breaker) and the first place silver plate is now displayed in our gallery.
[from left] Garden crew Melissa Soluski, Maggie Lamb, Katie Schroeder, agriculture manager Lisa Willott and agriculture intern Amber Klatt.

The Arizona State Fair in Phoenix, running in October and November was also successful. We received 13 first place ribbons for dried sage and rosemary, bowl gourds, butternut squash, garlic, yellow pear tomatoes, strawberry popcorn, Clemson spineless long okra, burgundy short okra, green tomatoes, tepary beans, and purple Peruvian peppers. Second place ribbons were won for purple snap beans and birdhouse gourds, and a third place ribbon for our last of the season eggplant.
[from left]: Katie Schroeder, Lisa Willott and Amber Klatt with the award winning items and State Fair ribbons.

General notes for department:
The harvest is wrapping up. We attended local Farmer’s Markets between May and the end of September in both Prescott and Prescott Valley in order to sell our produce and pass on information and brochures to people about the Arcosanti project.
The greenhouse is planted with lettuces and greens and outdoors we are planting the last of the garlic and harvesting the last butternut squash and few remaining vegetables (zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes) before it freezes.
We will begin to plant our winter cover crop shortly. And we will have a new batch of honey available soon from the summer blossoms at Arcosanti.
And for Thanksgiving, we donated about 100 lbs of our butternut squash to BMIS Black Mesa Indigineous Support Group in Black Mesa, AZ.
[from upper left]: At the farmers market, Lisa Willott, foundry staff Rick Frost, Maggie Lamb, Melissa Soluski, foundry staff Tucker Zenski and Amber Klatt.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thanksgiving at Arcosanti photos will be posted on Monday, 11/26/2007.

The BABEL CANYON model has come out of storage and prepared to travel to the Musée de la Civilisation in Québec, Canada. It will be shown from January 16, 2008, to April 19, 2009 in URBANOPOLIS, an exhibition to commemorate Québec',s 400 anniversary.
The crew [from left]: Cameron Wilson, Federica Doglio, Elisabetta Quaglino, Francesco Ferretti, Daniela Cardace, Trevor Golden, Will Holman, Joseph Croce and Director Tomiaki Tamura.

BABEL CANYON was designed for a population 250,000 in an arcology about 800 meters high [according to Paolo Soleri's book "City in the image of Man"].
Designed on a curve-square plan of about 1 kilometer per side, Babel Canyon is like a series of skyscrapers perforating three pyramidal and multifunctional configurations. The lower one covers the servicing entrails of the city. The other two are the containers of residential and public functions. As for many of the arcologies there is a very large light-and-air well running on the vertical axis. The sloping configurations produce a variety of spatial systems of inward or outward character. The environmental characters would be very diverse, with almost opposite rhythms of space, light and dimension.
This model was built by Soleri and students at Cosanti in 1969, and has been part of many exhibitions.

A new crate had to be built out of certified wood. Staff from CRATERS AND FREIGHTERS in Phoenix came and build the crate on site, packed and cushioned the model for overland transport.
The model was picked up by US ART, a transport company that specializes in transportation of exhibitions.
We hope to have photos once the exhibition opens and will report more on this at that time.

We continue our report from 11/16/07 about new path lighting that will lead all the way from the S.O.D. Office building to the area infront of the Ceramics Apse.
The crew lays conduit for electric wires leading to a new distribution box in front of the Vaults.
[from left] Site electrician Dr. Sparks, workshop participant Nelson DeLaRosa and construction crew Will Holman. Dr. Sparks and Brendan Scott.

Workshop participants Nelson DeLaRosa and Claudia Giuliana connect parts of the utility line for a sprinkler system that is bedded in the same trench.

Utility lines are protected with a layer of sand and tape that indicates line location, before the originally removed earth is sifted for rocks and packed back into the trench.
This report continues.

We reported on 5/14, 5/16 and 5/18/2007 about installation of a set of eight solar panels that were installed on the greenhouse window of the S.O.D. Soleri Office building. The panels were graciously donated by PTL [Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory], which is a part of Arizona State University. We again extend a hearty 'Thank You' to Program Manager William Shisler for this generous donation.

These panels will provide the power for a series of light fixtures for the south face of Arcosanti, along the path from the pool all the way to the Ceramic Apse.
The new workshop joins the construction crew for a major job of digging the trench that will accommodate the electric wiring as well as a new sprinkler system for landscaping.

The trench has to be at least 8 inches deep to protect the utility lines from frost.
This report continues on 11/19/07.

To continue our report from 11/12/07, the hydronic heating system is a collection of continuous polyethylene tubing, layed out under the floor of each of the living units on the second level or the East Crescent complex.
Contractor Ted White worked with Arcosanti Utilities manager Scott Riley, and utilities team on the connection of the system to it's heating source.

The coils are filled with circulating water connected to a new heat-exchanging, 120-gallon indirect water heater. This water heater works in conjunction with a high efficiency modulating (condensing) boiler control module.
This system will be used for both domestic water and the hydronic floor heating system.
Floors will be kept at a steady 64 degrees.

The official completion of the system was celebrated with a lively reception at the new boiler room.

During the interior finishing work, construction crew installed a hydronic heating system under all of the apartment floors on the second level of the East Crescent.
[see report from 4/19/04]
The hydronic system consists of continuous cross-linked polyethylene tubing secured with metal mesh.
The tubing is protected by a layer of gypcrete. [see report from 4/21/04]. 6,000 linear feet of hydronic tubing was donated by Wyatt Development and the Wirsho/Uponor Company to complete this project.

The gypcrete floors were tiled in Unit 6, Unit 7 and Unit 9. Unit 8 and Unit 10 floors were carpeted.

In each room, all of the tubing connects to a wall in-take and out-flow system, which in turn connects to all of the other apartment outlets.
This report continues on 11/14/07 with installation of the distribution system for the hydronic floor heating for all of the second floor and the official opening of same.

Welcome to the November 4. workshop participants:

[from left]
Lissa McCullogh [seminar week],
Ally Lennhouts [agriculture intern],
Joelle McTigue [2 weeks],
Nelson DeLaRosa,
Rose Orleans [agriculture intern],
Christian Horbach, Claudia Giuliana and Sae Tsukamoto.

We last reported on Oct. 29. 2007 about the continuing work on the ramp for the new Visitors Center entrance.
The metalshop crew now works on a railing for the first part of the ramp.
Workshop participant David Ledbetter grind the metal contact plates that were imbedded in the concrete retaining wall.

Posts for the new railing are welded to the contact plates.
Welding shop volunteer Darina Trendafilova and David Ledbetter.

The railing is in place and the crew grinds welding joints to prepare for a coat of weather proof metal primer.
This report continues on 11/14/07.

Congratulations to the graduates of the October 7. 2007 workshop program:

[from left] Alumnus from 1978-81, David Sylvester, who volunteered his services to the construction crew, while his son Leo took the workshop. THANK YOU for your good work.

Nile Fahmy continues his internship in the foundry.
Federica Doglio was part of the construction crew during her workshop, Leo Syvester spent his workshop as part of the Soleri Archives team,
Francesco Ferretti continues on as volunteer in construction,
David Ledbetter continues as part of the metalshop team,
Miccaella Eo was part of the archives team during her workshop,
and Trevor Golden worked with construction.
In front of Trevor is Daniela Cardace, a graduate of the Sept.2. workshop, who now volunteers in construction. Next to Trevor, Peter Lindgren started with this group and continues his Arcosanti scholarship.

Halloween at Arcosanti, once again, brought out creativity and fun.