On December 11, 2010, the Soleri Bridge and Plaza will officially open in Scottsdale, AZ.

When I interviewed Soleri this past July, I asked him if he had any thoughts on the fact that the amphitheater he designed and built in Santa Fe four decades ago was being scheduled for razing at the same time this bridge was being completed.

He began to laugh. “The gods, knowing them, are smiling at me,” he said. Then he became serious. “Things are always unpredictable. This bridge was on the table for something like 30 years. And it’s not the original bridge, this is the latest.”

“Yes, the gods,” I said. We had spoken about “the gods” when I visited him in 2006 and I knew to take that sentence with the largest grain of salt imaginable; Paolo is not a fan of magical thinking or theology.

So, in honor of Bridges, literal and metaphorical, realized and unrealized, here’s a short clip. This is NOT the bridge  you’ll see if you go to Scottsdale. Nor is it site specific. It is, as Sue Anaya, the Arcosanti archivist says, a contemplation. I love that word.

For more bridges, check out Paolo Soleri’s Bridge Design Collection: Connecting Metaphor on ArchDaily.

For some background, visit “Paolo Soleri Bridge to Open in December,” by David M. Brown, Architectural Record.

For even more bridges check out “Bridges: Spanning the Ideas of Paolo Soleri” on the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art website.