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Article: A dream in the desert. (Arcosanti, a prototype of a vertical city designed by Paolo Soleri, is being built in the Arizona desert; American Survey)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 24, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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APART from the aberration of skyscrapers, America has always built laterally rather than vertically. Its cities spread out over vast distances, ringroad to freeway to suburb to mall; every highway has its ribbon development, mile after mile of hoardings, neon, filling stations and motels. Out in the middle of Arizona, however, one man thinks things should be different; and for 20 years now he has been working to persuade Americans to bunch up, abandon their cars, and think vertical.
This man, Paolo Soleri, is naturally not an American himself. He is Italian, brought up in Turin, where the narrow streets and crowded houses gave him an ideal picture of how a polis ...