As every year on Thanksgiving day, the chefs were up and about very early in the Cafe kitchen, to get turkey stuffing ready and the turkeys into the oven.
And during the morning wonderful smells were wafting from the various housing units and the community kitchen.
The international crew of workshop participants, residents, volunteers and visiting alumni once again brought together an enormous and super delicious spread of dishes from around the world.

Paolo Soleri arrived with his daughter Daniela, and enjoyed the occasion very much.

Many family members came to visit, and as every year, quite a few alumni returned to Arcosanti for the holiday.
We send greetings to absent friends and family and Arcosanti alumni around the world with good wishes for the Holiday Season.

Cosanti Foundation Public Relations Erin Jeffries reports:

"Paolo Soleri and other representatives of the Cosanti Foundation attended a presentation about planning for Arizona's Sun Corridor, an area of rapid growth between the border of Mexico in Nogales to north of Prescott, Arizona.
Held at Arizona State University's Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory in downtown Phoenix, the event was created in response to the recent Brookings Institute report "The Sun Corridor as Mountain "Mega": One of America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help It Prosper."

Arizona governor Janet Napolitano and Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon made appearances, along with a panel of speakers consisting of key authorities in planning for Arizona's future.

Paolo Soleri made comments to the presenters, suggesting that making four lanes of highway between Phoenix and Tucson is reformation when we actually need reformulation, such as creating four strands of linear city instead of highway (referring to SOLARE and the Lean Linear City concept).
Governor Napolitano responded to his comments by noting the importance of the meaning of words; she explained the commonality between Paolo's words and her work by illustrating the difference between creating jobs and creating futures."

The photos were taken by workshop participant Pietro Viscomi, here with Paolo Soleri after the conference.
Pietro reports:
"This forum encouraged a free-wheeling discussion focused on the mature and ripe period for the “megapolitan” areas of the Intermountain West to better organize their energies and consider how to amplify their voice in national affairs.
Dr.Soleri underlined his idea of intervention : “give a new planning model dictated by a new mentality” [in respect to the the city].
“Mountain Mega” studies five emerging megapolitan areas in the Intermountain West: the Front Range, the Wasatch Front, Greater Las Vegas, Northern New Mexico and the Sun Corridor [metropolitan Phoenix, Tucson, and Prescott). The Sun Corridor was the crucial point of debate in which several Scholars and representatives of the political arena spoke at this conference."

The Ecosa Institute offers unique sustainable design programs for Architecture and Design Undergraduates, Graduates, and Sustainable Career Explorers.
The vision for this was formulated over a period of years during the 1980's and 90's by English Architect and educator Antony Brown.
His dedication to issues of sustainability and ecological design developed after joining Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti Foundation and working with Soleri on his conceptual designs for a new vision of urban settlements. Alumnus Tony Brown was architect-in-residence at Arcosanti from 1972 to 1984, supervising both design work and construction.
The present class from the Ecosa Institute came for a two-day visit of tours and classes.


The Ecosa group enjoyed a view of some of the materials in the Soleri Archives.

Part of the visit were also
an extended tour of the Arcosanti site and a hike into the surrounding desert with Cliff Hersted, to see some of the petroglyphs around the Arcosanti site. The group also participated in a silt-workshop.

Paolo Soleri was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Arizona Governor’s Celebration of Innovation. The award ceremony took place on the evening of 11/13/08 at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix. [see links to some of the articles on the event in our report from 11/14/08]

The photo is of Paolo Soleri at the Arcosanti table, with Cosanti Foundation Director and Treasurer Mary Hoadley, and alumnus Jeff Stein, who is the Head of the School of Architecture at Boston Architectural Center and Head of the Board of Directors of the Cosanti Foundation.

This was Paolo Soleri’s acceptance speach:

"Thank you all so much for acknowledging my life’s work here in Arizona.
Given that technology is reality generating itself since the Big Bang, the American Empire is a stupendous example of human ingenuity and industriousness. There is danger when technology is iconized into technocracy because that event gives way to idolatry: the worshipping of our invented idols, be they gods, guns, cars or our single family home hermitages, a story that has been our nemesis for millions of years. It is desirable if extremely difficult for dreaming Americans to transcend their technocratic triumph, an imperative if evolving life is not to be betrayed. Triviality and materialism are main obstacles on the runway of transcendence. But, yes we can, says Obama our new president.
I ‘d like to invite all of you to a public discussion at the Phoenix Central Library Saturday afternoon, December 6, exploring the possibilities for sustainable development in Arizona.
Thank you again."

Paolo received a One Minute Oration!!

More images of the event can be found on flickr, courtesy of Mark Goldstein, President of the International Research Center.

Arcosanti alumnus Alex Barragan [on the right] joined Paolo Soleri in this week's "School of Thought", to announce and discuss plans for the upcoming panel discussion, titled "Sustainable Urban Growth in Arizona" and scheduled for Saturday, December 6, 2008
This discussion is part of "The Desert Environment Series", which was started by Alex in March 2008 . It presents forums to discuss ideas on architecture, urbanism, industrial design, transportation, and the arts as they influence Arizona's most spectacular desert environment.
This free public discussion will be held at the Burton Barr Central Library from 2:00 - 4:30 p.m. to discuss planning for Arizona's rapid expansion. It will feature fifteen-minute presentations by
photographer David Muench , architect Paolo Soleri, ASU Professor John Meunier, and ADOT's Rakesh Tripathi, followed by a short break and open discussion.

Outdoor and fine art photographer David Muench introduces the framework of the discussion with images of Arizona's beautiful desertscapes. Paolo Soleri presents his Lean Linear City concept, a model for a dense, pedestrian, urban development that utilizes solar and wind power. The city's logistical design includes an extensive train system with local pedestrian and bicycle paths, all along an urban park. Food production, waste processing, and water recycling systems are integrated into the city. Architect and ASU Professor John Meunier discusses desert planning along with Sustainable Compact Urbanism. Rakesh Tripathi , ADOT Multimodal Planning Division Director, explores the future of rail in Arizona. Steven J. Gottesman , AIA LEED Architect, will facilitate the discussion and cellist Dennis Yee will entertain participants before the presentations.

The poster was designed and executed by Arcosanti resident, architect Nadia Begin, here with husband David Tollas.

We had a two-day visit of 55 architecture students of the Instituto Techologico De Tijuana.
The students arrived Saturday evening and filled our dorm spaces to capacity.
This visit to Arcosanti is part of their study of the philosophy of Architecture.
An extended tour of the Arcosanti site took place on Sunday morning and during the afternoon the students had a chance to explore the unique landscape around the site.
For information on group bookings please contact Carri Krueger, our guest services coordinator.

Paolo Soleri was honored with this years LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD at the Arizona Governor’s Celebration of Innovation.
The award ceremony took place last night at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix.
“This annual contest is a joint effort by the Arizona Technology Council, State Department of Commerce and the Governors Office, to honor business, researchers, educators and students who have made notable efforts to bolster the state’s technology and bioscience industries. The winners represent “an absolute first-class slate of community leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists and inventors,” tech council President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Zylstra said in an interview before the event.
[quotes by Andrew Johnson, AZ Republic, see the article.]

Additional articles on the award ceremony can be found in:

Phoenix Business Journal

The Wall Street Journal - Marketwatch.

We have not yet received photos of the award ceremony.

It's been a week of exciting events for Paolo Soleri.
This most recent photo of Paolo was taken in the Soleri Archives at Arcosanti, during an hour-long interview with Rita Lofano this last Wednesday, 11/12/08. Rita Lofano works for AGI, a press and media company selected by the Italian Government to carry out interviews with the greatest Italian personalities, including Paolo Soleri, for Italy's 150th year celebration.

We continue our report from 11/10/08, about the finishing work in Unit 9 of the East Crescent, with this report from planning coordinator Jenn Epstein of a new experiment.
"We are using 'American Clay' LOMA plaster, purchased from A.K.A. Green in Phoenix, for a portion of the wall in our new ADA unit currently under construction.
The clay plaster has a negative ionic charge, claimed to affect inhabitants mood, repels dust, as well as creating a latent heat flux within the space moderating the temperature.
For unit 9 we are using the Mauna Loa pigment with a sanded primer over drywall.

We use hand texturing to impress a design into the plaster to make it more of a focal point of the room."

This report continues the week of Dec.8.2008.

We last posted a report on October 27. 2008 about interior finishing work in the studio apartment on the ground floor of Unit 9 in the East Crescent Complex.
This view is from the kitchen area into the main living room area with an in-built closet.

Workshop participants Giorgio Bologna and Hortense Sestito completed the south wall and have now prepared the walls for painting.

This view looks into the kitchen area. At the south wall are all of the utility lines that will connect to the stove and kitchen sink.
This is the first apartment at Arcosanti that will be completely fitted for a handicapped occupant.
Report continues on 11/12/08.

Welcome to the Nov. 3.2008 Workshop.
[Top from left]: Pietro Viscomi and Brian Fritz.
[Middle from left]:
Rabia Handan Celebi,
Marco Cerati, Lisa Richardson (2-week), Jackie Herst (2-week) and Sara Landau.
[Bottom from left]:
Shawna Craig, Jae Ko,
Helen Wright, Robert Lancaster and Anita Baker (both seminar week).

The Sept. 28. workshop participants graduated last Friday, October 31. 2008.

Congratulations to:
[from left]
Amy Bunker, Asako Kitazawa, Hortense Sestito, Elvire Callaghan, Giorgio Bologna, Alyssa Blumstein and Aarthi Janakiraman.

The Arcosanti's Construction department took a field trip to the Salt River Pima Maricopa Clarkdale cement plant. The SRPM provides free tours for students and adults.

The tour, guided by Margie Beach, SRPM Communications Director first introduced the history of the plant and the process of manufacturing cement. Next, we took a ride through the yard and visited the Chemical Testing lab and the Control Room of the plant.

This is an image of the cement-firing kiln that works 24/7, with only a few maintenance stops throughout the year.

One of the major suppliers in Arizona of portland and masonry cements, fly ash and other pozzolans, SRPM is also a leader in the promotion of environmentally responsible products and practices. In July 2006, it adopted a formal initiative named the Sustainability Initiative. In 2007 the Clarkdale plant received the ENERGY STAR® award by the US Environmental Protection Agency for superior energy performance. Modernization has allowed the plant to produce 50% more cement without any increase in energy use. Currently the Clarkdale Plant produces 1.1 million tons of cement annually.
Just recently, the SRPM Cement Plant donated 18 pallets of cement to Arcosanti [see report from 8/25/08].