I asked Paolo some years ago how he felt about my using the word "arcology" as a verb (to arcologize), or as a modifier, as an adjective or an adverb (arcological or arcologically). My impression was that it didn't really sit all that well with him; perhaps because he intuited the direction that talking about arcology that way could take, how it would perhaps inevitably become a distraction from his purpose, which was to test his ideas for Arcosanti, the urban laboratory in central Arizona he's dedicated the second half of his life to constructing. His focus is constructing Arcosanti itself rather than reconstructing the world at large although he's written quite a bit about how much the world at large needs reconstructing.
I don't see him interested in reconstructing the suburbs, which has become more and more an object of my own focus. We all want validation, though, surely. Why should Paolo be any different on that score?
But insofar as Arcosanti itself is concerned, what I looked to do, especially during my last extended sojourn between 2003 and 2006, at any rate, was to come up with ways to develop the project, encourage its growth, expand its population, bring it closer to the goals Paolo had once-upon-a-time identified as measurements of its completion. That would have been measured in a number of buildings constructed, a population of such- and-such a size, for example...
In mulling over possible ways to hasten completion, during that sojourn I came up with organizational development ideas that I tried to run by the Board of Trustees, of which Paolo was, at the time, still chief officer - President.
When I pitched them to the Board, I'm afraid I came up with empty hands for every one of them.
Been there, done that. (See blog entry for 1968-1969.) When a job offer at a mental health clinic in SE AZ presented itself, I took it.
I don't see him interested in reconstructing the suburbs, which has become more and more an object of my own focus. We all want validation, though, surely. Why should Paolo be any different on that score?
But insofar as Arcosanti itself is concerned, what I looked to do, especially during my last extended sojourn between 2003 and 2006, at any rate, was to come up with ways to develop the project, encourage its growth, expand its population, bring it closer to the goals Paolo had once-upon-a-time identified as measurements of its completion. That would have been measured in a number of buildings constructed, a population of such- and-such a size, for example...
In mulling over possible ways to hasten completion, during that sojourn I came up with organizational development ideas that I tried to run by the Board of Trustees, of which Paolo was, at the time, still chief officer - President.
When I pitched them to the Board, I'm afraid I came up with empty hands for every one of them.
- Too soon, or anyway not the right time to expand the academic program.
- Too soon or not the right time to link w/ the existing consortiums of all the AZ universities and the Working Colleges group (Berea, Hampshire, et al).
- Too soon or not the right time to organize a competition among all the world's engineering schools to retrofit all the existing buildings so as to make them handicap-accessible or at least to maximize handicap-access. Contest winner to supervise execution of the tasks, judges having been chosen by Very Special Arts, the international organization that advocates for handicapped artists.
- Too soon or not the right time to organize a national or an international competition to redesign the Cafe's kitchen and bakery. Again, winner to supervise completion; designs to be submitted to and judged by TV's finest chefs.
- Too soon or not the right time to allow the old hands (aka "alumni") to pony up dough and plunk it into a secure fund for something like time-shares, co-housing, condos - a variety of neighborhood-creating, friendly, multi-purpose habitats.
- Too soon or not the right time...to secure land for parking at the junction, test a transit-system linking the Arcosanti site to the highway.
Been there, done that. (See blog entry for 1968-1969.) When a job offer at a mental health clinic in SE AZ presented itself, I took it.
