Visionary Architect Focus: Paolo Soleri

"Paper architects" frequently dream up futuristic visions for the built environment that never transcend theoretical discourse. In his thousands of drawings, architect and artist Paolo Soleri (1919–2013) envisioned structures that supported a way of life more in tune with the ecosystem than the contemporaneous resource-consumptive culture. "His genius lay in his artistry and imagination," says Claire C. Carter, an assistant curator at work on a series of Soleri exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.