Creating Tomorrow - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 471

FIGURE 27.5
Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Frank Lloyd Wright considered the Sonoran desert to be among the most creative places
on earth. How we live with what we have been given is up to us, including the danger that
we could lose what makes our environmental experience so special. The threat of that loss
is worthy of on-going evaluation (Figure 27.5). The next time we get excited about some-
thing to be added to the land, we should ask a simple question: will the addition, however
appealing in itself, make the community more like every place else or will it reinforce that
which makes the environment such a special place?
The Southwest character is a great teacher. Its textures, colors, and geometry are var-
ied, bold, and dramatic. The flavor of the Southwest has many moods. Watch the cloud
shadows pass over the land and surrounding mountains. Something new is always being
revealed. And so it must be with any human habitation worthy of such magnificent set-
tings. Everything we build, from the most rural to the most urban environments, should
express a connection to the timeless spirit of the land.
27.1.3 Regional Open Space
The third challenge is to create a regional network of open space as “large chunks of
healthy natural landscape” after the manner of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert
Vau x. 7 Once established, this open space system would serve as the organizing frame-
work for the connecting circulation system and all other land uses including valuable
vegetating, drainage, and regional connectivity for wildlife. No matter how many details
can easily get in the way of thinking at a regional scale, this network should go well
beyond present needs to address the ultimate build—out for as far as we can imagine.
Anything less will simply continue the frontier notions of piecemeal decisions that no
longer serve (Figure 27.6).
Frontier values are those that assume there are always new landmasses and untold
riches yet to be discovered. While it is true that the Southwest has many thousands of
undeveloped acres that may seem to be out there in the great beyond, most everything in
private ownership is being analyzed as a candidate for future growth with little to guide