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Arcosanti photos

Posted onWednesday 29 August 2012

More Arcosanti photos; click on the thumbnails for a larger, clearer version of each photo. Also, you can read my thoughts on Arcosanti here, for more background, and see more photos at the end of that article. Enjoy! :)

Pouring molten brass — The actual “pour” into the molds. As you can see, everyone is being extremely careful with the molten metal; we were lucky to be passing by at just the right time to watch. It was so hot that day that I was shooting almost blind due to the sun’s glare — I’m delighted at how well this shot came out.

Brass-smithing Hall living quarters — Here are the upper windows in the Brass-smithing Hall — clearly for living quarters, despite this hall being very much a working area — I got the feeling housing people was a bit of an issue occasionally. Here too the ferro-concrete is decorated as best they could.

Brass-smithing Hall — The interior of the Brass-smithing Hall. Don’t know what the right word is for blacksmithing with brass, so brass-smithing will have to do. ;) We (the tourists) were standing in a lower area for the just-in-case protection — it wasn’t needed, fortunately — and the dark gray-brown box-like shapes in front of use are the molds for the brass bells.

Arcosanti bells — Some of the many Arcosanti bells which hang prolifically throughout the core buildings and surroundings. While this is not my favorite set, it shows them off nicely. Apparently the bells — both silt-cast and brass — pretty much support Arcosanti’s continued creation, so I had to buy a little one for myself as well. ;)

Decorations before the Ceramics Hall — This photo is to the immediate right of the previous one, & shows the small cast iron decorations that could be spotted intermittently through Arcosanti. In the upper left are the wide, decorated stair-steps shown in an above photo.

Greenery before the Ceramics Hall — This photo & the next one show more of the Arcosanti attempts to decoratively & usefully integrate nature into the city. These plants are growing in a water-filled square, cooling the air & providing a nice place to sit while you wait for your work to dry & harden a bit in the sun. The next photo is immediately to the right of this one.

Far right - Ceramics Hall — This is the far right of the Ceramics Hall — you can just see the leftmost set of bells here in the above photo, on the far right. I took this shot for the decorative elements — the odd concrete wall shape with the hanging bells, the rocks set into the concrete steps for visual interest, and all the bell forms drying out in the sun.

Ceramics Hall — Another, slightly smaller big hall, this one dedicated to ceramics creation. All the silt-cast Arcosanti bells are crafted here, as well as several other commercial ceramic projects. You can see some of them set out to dry in the sun on the black-plastic-covered benches in front. The hall’s shell is cool and somewhat airy inside; I’d think it would be a nice place to work. If I remember correctly, at least some of the clay is dug nearby, and all the inner doorways lead to storage and/or kilns.

Creative fencing — Another lovely example of the nature-respecting attitude which permeated Arcosanti: reshaping the fence so as to not inhibit the tree’s growth. This is part of why I found Arcosanti itself such an emotion-churning mix of not-quite-enough & hope-raising potential. I don’t think Arcosanti could work as it was envisioned to work, using only the 70’s-crafted blueprints — but I do think we can learn so much from it to help make our cities and communities better places to live! It truly could be a wonderful, beneficial urban laboratory, as the entry sign asks, if we took the time to use it so.

Great Hall wind tunnel decoration — A lovely but badly faded painting of a rattlesnake on one of the walls of the Great Hall’s wind tunnel. These paintings were all over the interior of the wind tunnel passage, which led out towards the amphitheatre, & which was possibly the nicest, coolest place in Arcosanti on that hot summer day. Whoever painted these originally did a marvelous job; it’s a tragedy the pigments didn’t last.

Wiindow in Great Hall — One of the many imaginatively decorated windows in the Great Hall, just barely visible on the right in the previous photo. This also shows how the ferro-concrete is starting to weather & fade the paint. I’ve discovered recently that apparently new paint cannot simply be applied — the ferro-concrete has to be expensively “treated” first. This is yet another reason why I understand the structural use of this substance — but find it a truly poor choice in regards to human emotional health. We’re just not made to live in tiny gray-concrete boxes.

Back view of Great Hall — Turning 180 degrees, here’s the rest of the multipurpose Great Hall — including basketball hoop, stairs & benches for town hall meetings, the doorway into another artisan’s area — I think they said that guy was working with leather? Loved the trees growing right into the building, and the painted interior decorations still unfaded by the sun. The doorway by the bicycle creates a cooling wind tunnel, & all the windows are to (current) living areas.

View from Great Hall — The view from within the Great Hall. It is surprisingly airy and cool in there, even during the heat of the day, and there’s a painted line on the floor to indicate the maximum reach of the Solstice sunlight. The Hall is apparently quite multipurpose, including rooms for shops/living quarters, another artisan work area behind, a large space for presentations, and being a place for town hall-style meetings, which I thought was cool.

Great Hall — First view of what I’ve mentally dubbed the Great Hall. You can see here how hard they’ve worked to decorate the ferro-concrete: painting on the inside of the arch, a small fountain to the viewer’s left, the labyrinth decoration in the upper left, the varied shapes and cut-outs in the concrete slabs, and the plentiful greenery all around.

Amphitheatre — The Arcosanti amphitheatre. There’s a really nice, full-scale theatre behind the stage backdrop, and they hold all kinds of performances there under the stars. There’s a little fountain to the left that falls down, under the small grates, to the small moat around the stage, and the doors and big circles you can see lead to what’s planned to eventually be artisan-work shops, but is currently living quarters.

Diningroom skylight — A not-very-good shot of the skylight. You can just make out the third floor’s balustrade on the right. If you peer very closely you might be able to also spot the strings of Arcosanti bells for sale which are hanging there. Sorry for my lousy camera-work! ;)

Bells inside dining room — Turning 90 degrees left from the above view, here are more beautiful Arcosanti bells. Two pianos are at the bottom of the photo, and another huge circular window frames another door. The ceiling is open to the third floor, with a huge skylight in the roof, making the dining room quite well-lit and airy.

View from dining room — The shade tarps again, this time from inside the 2-story dining/public room, which offers a beautiful view of the desert. The upper floor we’re looking at is outside; the lower is inside. There are lots of attempts — plants, decorations, etc. — to create a comfier ‘feel’ despite the concrete. Notice the lovely hanging bells? That’s the kitchen to the far right.

Stairway tower into main public building — This is the walkway to the stairway tower leading into the 5-story main public building, which is the visitor’s first real view of Arcosanti’s building style. I found it rather 70’s, with the squared circles and the bleak ferro-concrete. You can just spot the three triangular shade tarps under the upper covered walkway.

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2 Comments

Collie says:

Monday 10 September 2012 at 14:06

My high school in Plano, TX was of a similar vintage. It, at least, was of a softer brownish-tan colored stone, with a nubbly texture. However, my father laughingly referred to it once as a prison as well, and not without reason, since it also had that look.

I think the amphitheatre is usually used during the twilight and evening, though I could be wrong. There were some beautiful and dramatic photos, frex, of it in use with fire and lights to accentuate the performances.

Re the photo choices: thanks! I was quite ruthless in picking only what came out all right and wasn’t too repetitive. My camera, while excellent, did occasionally have trouble with me being such a newbie, after all. Also, I was more than once shooting effectively blind, due to the enormous amount of sun reflection. :)

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Lou Erickson says:

Monday 10 September 2012 at 13:24

I love the use of the curves; it really does help soften the look of the hard concrete. In Seattle, North Seattle Community College is a big concrete building of about the same vintage. It’s a giant, flat box. It’s ugly, and often called “North Seattle Community Prison” because it looks so bleak and grey. It’s a practical, effective, modular, expandable building… but it has no life, and no sense of style at all.

The amphitheater looks hot. Needs shade.

Of course they’re careful pouring molten metal; people die if you’re not. There’s an enormous amount of energy there, and if it gets wet or cold it can explode everywhere.

Good photo choices!

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