Ryan and I are back home from our quick weekend trip down to central Arizona to visit Arcosanti: A destination I’ve been wanting to visit for a while!
Arcosanti is an experimental town located about halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff, right off of Interstate 17.
The concept behind Arcosanti is “arcology,” which is the combination of architecture and ecology.
Arcology was pioneered by Paolo Soleri, an Italian-born architect who focused entirely on designing self-sustaining city-compounds meant to meld buildings with their surrounding environments in a seamless way, all while highlighting community as a centerpiece.
Soleri founded the Cosanti Foundation — “cosa” meaning things, and “anti” meaning without — and began constructing Arcosanti with a host of volunteer builders in the 1970s.
While the project was never finished, and likely never will be, Arcosanti still exists as a functioning prototype of “arcology,” and its accompanying goals — a solution to urban sprawl with architectural designs focused around communities and the environment.
Even though the full scale of Soleri’s dreams never came to fruition, Arcosanti is still fully functional. There are about 50 residents of the town who live in the compound and work to create bronze and ceramic windbells and tiles, which help sustain the Arcosanti Foundation.
Ryan and I booked a stay overnight at Arcosanti. While self-guided tours of Arcosanti aren’t allowed, overnight visitors are allowed to freely explore the area and access some areas that are off-limits to day visitors. That was a huge factor in us deciding to make our adventure into a weekend trip instead of just a one-day stop.
Arcosanti features two guest suites on the main property: The Sky Suite and the Sun Suite. There’s also a row of guest rooms situated just below the main site, with floor-to-ceiling windows open to the Agua Fria and the Valletta Canyon cliffs.
Ryan and I opted to stay in one of the guest rooms.
Tip: While the Sky Suite and Sun Suite have amenities such as refrigerators, stoves and microwaves, the guest rooms do not have any kitchen appliances. Ryan and I packed a cooler with food for the weekend, since the cafe closes after lunch. However, there is a shared kitchenette area located in the guest house complex with refrigerators and sinks. No microwave, though! Pack accordingly.
We started our weekend with a tour of the facility. Tours are not included with an overnight stay.
Tip: The Flagstaff Public Library has a “Culture Pass” program that allowed us to check out our tour tickets free of charge. Check your library for something similar.
Our tour guide, Ace, introduced himself as a 5-year resident of Arcosanti who worked on-site as a welder.
Our 75-minute tour started with a video and then an exploration.
We started our tour in the gift shop and cafe. Afterward, Ace walked us to the ceramics apse, the vaults, the sky theater, the foundry apse and the amphitheater.
Throughout the tour, Ace explained the history of Arcosanti and the Cosanti Foundation. He talked about Soleri’s vision, the initial construction and the ongoing foundry work and windbell casting, which generates millions a year in revenue and helps to fund the Cosanti Foundation.
He also explained what life was like living at Arcosanti.
Arcosanti is mind-blowingly cool. The architecture is so seamless. The entire facility is constructed almost entirely of concrete and glass. There are housing units tucked into niches and corners and everything just flows so spectacularly well together.
Arcosanti is a winding maze of concrete arches, domes and steps peppered with round windows and boxy towers, spindly Cypress trees and fruiting olive trees — all precariously wedged into the cliffside in an attempt to somehow command attention while contradictorily remaining unobtrusive.
I can’t emphasize enough just how cool the architecture is. It all just melded so, so well.
After our tour, Ryan and I stopped in the cafe for a quick snack (Ryan had a pastry that was made in the kitchen) and admired the architecture a bit more.
Outside of times before and after guided tours, the cafe and gift shop were fairly empty.
After we left the cafe, we hiked up the Visitor’s Trail, which is a really short trail (about a mile round trip with very minimal elevation gain — but a lot of rocks!) that takes you up a hill on the opposite side of the Valletta Canyon for a fantastic view of the compound (and its stunning architecture!) from afar.
Afterward, the two of us made our way to our guest room and checked ourselves in.
We took a quick nap, and then ventured up from the guest house to the main facility to explore on our own.
The weather for our trip was… not ideal. While it was sunny when we arrived, it was a crazy windy day that made it really difficult to hear Ace speaking during parts of our tour.
The night was a little cold with lower-than-usual temperatures, heavy cloud cover and scattered storms.
So, we battled the winds and spent the hours before and after sunset wandering around the complex, taking photo after photo.
During clear nights, Arcosanti’s sky theater gives visitors a pretty good view of the Milky Way galaxy, but it was so cloudy, we couldn’t even see the stars.
BUT- we were lucky enough that there was actually an event happening at the amphitheater that night. So, Arcosanti’s “speakeasy” was opened up and Ryan and I were able to grab a drink (from our tour guide Ace) and hang out at the bar before heading over to the amphitheater to see a DJ performance (also from our tour guide Ace) before the event.
In addition to the architecture being cool, the people living at Arcosanti were just so nice.
We ran into a man who was visiting from Phoenix, who was wandering around the compound. He’d come for the DJ sets at the amphitheater spontaneously, and was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
One of the residents in the speakeasy walked him over to the Arcosanti communal closet to get him some extra layers.
So nice!
Ryan and I walked over to the amphitheater at about 8 p.m. to watch our tour guide perform as a resident artist for a bit before the headliners, and then we went back to our room to call it a night.
We’re old.
We woke up at about 6 this morning to watch the sunrise over the cliffs.
Tip: If you’re an early riser and you stay in the guest rooms, bring coffee! There was an electric kettle and a selection of mugs for overnight guests to use in the communal kitchen. The cafe doesn’t open until 8:30 for coffee.
Our stay was a bit noisy. The rooms are listed as “C” through “K/L,” with K/L being two rooms with a joint bathroom. I booked “C” thinking it would be a side unit and therefore quieter, but A/B is actually the communal kitchen… so we had to deal with a lot of noise when some of the overnight visitors checked in really late at night, and then again in the the morning when some of the overnight visitors commandeered the kitchen for a few hours.
However… some of the resident rooms at the compound literally overlook the amphitheater, so I feel like I shouldn’t complain!
After checking out of our room, we explored the rest of the short trails around the compound. We made it back up the Visitor’s Trail one more time, and then went to the cafe for pastries and coffee before leaving.
And that was it! We made the snowy drive back up to Flagstaff.
I definitely, definitely want to go back for another weekend trip to Arcosanti. The Cosanti Foundation hosts windbell workshops, and I would love to participate in one. I’d also love a chance to enjoy the pools in warmer weather, and to stay in one of the bigger suites in the main facility.
