Architect Paolo Soleri’s design of a bridge and plaza on the Arizona Canal in downtown Scottsdale was recently unveiled to the public. Inset shows the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Inset photo: N. Barbieri

Can the Valley of the Sun be a Venice in the Desert?

by Joe Gelt

In a brief commentary piece that appeared in the Aug. 23 Arizona Republic titled “Why the Valley could be the Venice in the desert” editorial writer Kathleen Ingles lauds efforts underway in Scottsdale to develop its canal areas as attractive public space. She hopes the completion of the gateway art project, part of the Scottsdale Waterfront, “sparks more interest in taking advantage of the scenic value of our canal system. Excluding the Central Arizona Project, metropolitan Phoenix has 131 miles of major canals. Four times more than Venice.”

Lest one thinks Phoenix may be singularly overreaching itself in claiming kinship with the Italian city, other U.S. cities and places have made similar claims at one time or another. Fort Lauderdale; San Antonio; Lowell, Massachusetts; the Lake Shore Cottages, St. Clair Flats, Michigan; and, of course, Venice, California all have claimed to be the Venice of America.

One of the earliest to stake such a claim was Camden, New Jersey. A Feb. 16, 1896 New York Times article disjointedly states: “City of Many Bridges. Trenton might be called the Venice of America. Has one hundred and four spans intersected and bordered, by a river, canals, creeks, and railroads, with, in many cases, bridges over bridges.”

Whatever the references to Venice are worth, Scottsdale’s efforts along its waterfront are indeed impressive in their own right. Plans for a pedestrian bridge that the city commissioned internationally famed Italian designer Paolo Soleri to design were recently unveiled to the public. The design of the 120-foot bridge include a 11,000-square-foot plaza with shade and sitting areas. Soleri Studios will create earth cast walls to frame the plaza, and the plaza will include the largest bell ever cast by Soleri.

Pedestrians crossing the bridge on its permeable walkway will feel breezes and hear the sound of water flowing beneath. A canopy 8 feet overhead and comprised of 22 panels will shade the bridge. Moveable furniture will be located on gathering areas near the water’s edge. Two 60-foot-high pylons, will create a shaft of light that will mark the solar events of the equinox and solstice dates and cross-quarter dates.
If approved, construction of the $3 million bridge could begin as early as July, to be completed by March 2009.

Bridge designer Soleri founded the Cosanti Foundation to promote his concept of “Arcology”— architecture coherent with ecology. The Foundation constructed Arcosanti, located in Cordes Junction, as well as Cosanti in Scottsdale.

Water Center Home -- AWR Home -- Search