Soleri Bridge & Plaza

About

The Soleri Bridge and Plaza is a pedestrian bridge over the canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront, designed by Paolo Soleri and completed in 2011. It's set on a true north axis and works as a solar calendar, with a six-inch gap between its pylons that lets a shaft of sunlight move across the deck. As public art, it's free to walk across and linger at any hour. Around solar noon the light follows a red stripe on the deck, and on the winter solstice the shadow is at its longest. The 22,000-square-foot plaza is framed by panels carved and cast from desert earth, water and cement. You'll also find a bell assembly Soleri made in 1969, which was shown in his first U.S. retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery.