Cosanti

Rank in Arizona: #231of 727 ranked
Overall score: Score 44.8 out of 100medium confidence
Category: Historic Site

Cosanti is the gallery and studio of the Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, at Paradise Valley, Arizona, and was his residence until his death in 2013. Soleri and his wife Colly established it in 1956 on a five-acre site a few miles from Taliesin West, where he had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright ten years earlier; built on the outskirts of Scottsdale, it is now surrounded by suburban housing. The name combines the Italian words for object and before, and is glossed as: there are things more important than objects. The structures include the original Earth House, a student dormitory, outdoor studios, a performance space, a swimming pool and a gift shop. Many are partly underground and banked with earth for insulation, and south-facing apses collect the low winter sun while shading the interiors in summer. Most were built by earthcasting: concrete poured over packed mounds of earth that were excavated once it had set, a technique also used in modified form for the bronze and ceramic wind-bells made on the site. Soleri outgrew Cosanti in 1970 and founded Arcosanti seventy miles north; Cosanti became the headquarters and namesake of his foundation. It is open to the public.

Where it is

Cosanti is a historic site near Scottsdale, in Maricopa County. It is one of the historic sites in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Cosanti, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
Coordinates and designations: Wikivoyage(opens in a new tab)
County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
Official site: http://www.cosanti.com/(opens in a new tab)

Record last verified 2026-08-12.

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2.0 miles away
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