We packed up early, left Camp Verde, and headed south. Our first stop was at Arcosanti:
Arcosanti is a planned experimental town with a molten bronze bell casting business 70 miles north of Phoenix, at an elevation of 3,732 feet. Its “arcology” concept was posited by the Italian-American architect, Paolo Soleri, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. He began construction in 1970 to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact on the earth. He taught and influenced generations of architects and urban designers who studied and worked with him there to build the proposed ‘town.’
We arrived in time for the 10:00 am tour. After a brief video presentation we toured the various buildings of this “urban experiment”. We saw the “students” making their signature clay bells, then we moved on to the Foundry. Today we watched as they poured molten bronze (2,100 degrees F) into dies (forms) to become bronze bells…
We were shown performance areas, living quarters, and lounge spaces.
The place is a little strange… Sort of like a hippie commune with high academic credentials. And we didn’t even see any of the architects living and working there…
We continued on into Phoenix, or Sun City, to be exact. We checked into our RV park, then I took the truck into the Chevrolet dealer; we are about 1,000 miles overdue for an oil change, and I don’t want to risk driving home across the desert with bad oil…
The big event today is an evening tour of Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio and school in Scottsdale…
Taliesin West was Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and school in the desert on the outskirts of Scottsdale, AZ, from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the School of Architecture at Taliesin and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship began to “trek” to Arizona each winter in 1935. In 1937 Wright purchased the plot of desert land that would soon become Taliesin West. He paid about $7,000 for over 600 acres on the southern slope of the McDowell Range overlooking Paradise Valley outside Scottsdale. In 1937 is was 4 miles past the last paved road in Scottsdale, a hamlet of about 200 people. Today it is about a 45 minute drive from the RV park in Sun City… It is almost totally surrounded by the sprawl of Scottsdale… We arrived just before dark…
The tour was fabulous, but, since it was at night, we took few pictures. We will come back tomorrow and do it in the rain, so pictures might be better…
This is the main drafting room…
This is the Breezeway…
We arrived home at about 10:00 pm – very late for us…
Tomorrow we come back to Taliesin West and have a three hour “In Depth” tour…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 