JAVA.June.2018

Photo: Thomas Thelion
Photo: Thomas Thelion
Photo: Andrew Boyle
“It isn’t doing that quite yet, because it’s only on the village scale, although it does
have a series of prototype buildings that are designed to connect people to each
other and their surroundings – rather than most of the buildings we’ve created in
the past hundred years since the industrial revolution, that tend to separate us from
each other and our surroundings.”
Stein took over program development in 2011 after Soleri’s departure from the
foundation and announced plans for new buildings, including more apartment
spaces. One of the setbacks the nonprofit has encountered for these plans is
a requirement from the county to pave the entrance road to the village so that
emergency vehicles can have better access, before more living units are created.
At over a mile long, paving the dirt road would come at an estimated price of around
$1 million – a considerable hurdle.
“We’ve had this notion of ‘man versus nature’ rather than humans as part of Earth’s
ecology – and we’re trying to change that paradigm. That’s a huge and long-term
notion. In the meantime, how is Arcosanti going to be useful to somebody right
now?” Stein adds.
“That has always been the question – and one of the ways is that it has become a
center for the performing arts in the middle of Arizona.”
FORM Opens Doors
FORM is not the first or even the largest music festival to be held at Arcosanti. In the
late 1970s, a series of concerts attracted attendees in the thousands for headliners
like Jackson Browne and Todd Rundgren.
In 1978, a massive car fire broke out in a makeshift parking lot on the site. Accounts
differ on how many cars were actually destroyed, ranging from a few dozen to 200,
but regardless, it quelled enthusiasm for events of such size and put a large dent
in Arcosanti’s budget for building. So while the idea of Arcosanti as a center for the
performing arts may not be new, FORM has introduced the project to a younger audience.
Kevin Pappa, for example, worked at an architectural firm out of school and is now a
planning coordinator at Arcosanti, after discovering it during the festival.
And Mia Shea, who originally visited when she was a child, rediscovered Arcosanti
while attending the second year of FORM and has since made regular trips back to
help plan events, including this year’s festival.
“The first generation of people that started Arcosanti are starting to get into
their old age,” Shea explains, “and that’s another thing that [Arcosanti] has to
think about, because they don’t have any hospice care or any real plan for how to
transition their community. So that’s a big focus right now – how to shift the whole
community to the new generation.”
A New Generation
Rob Jameson, who arrived at Arcosanti three and a half years ago and now heads IT
and information systems, is an example of this shift.
Jameson created Convergence, an event taking place this October for its second
year that offers panels, workshops and performances partially inspired by FORM, but
focusing more on Arcosanti’s mission of sustainability and collaboration.
He also spearheaded a grant awarded by Google AdWords for $10,000, allowing
the foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit, to expand its scope and market more efficiently
through keyword searches.
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MAGAZINE