TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Paolo Soleri was an Italian architect and designer and a piece of his work lives in Midtown. But talks of moving has concerned some neighbors.
Soleri created a chapel within the University of Arizona Cancer Center in honor of his wife who passed away of the disease. It was completed in 1986 and was used as a public chapel.
The chapel consists of 10 ceiling panels, a wall sculpture, decorative bells and a stained glass window.
However, the building it’s located in is now office space and is no longer open to the public.
Due to that the university decided to move some elements of the chapel to a new meditation room in the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
However, now UA is backtracking, stating they are pausing the project indefinitely.
After further discussions, the university is pausing indefinitely on this project. We want the community to know that we heard their concerns surrounding this move and appreciate the thoughtful feedback we received. Over the next few months, the university will work with preservationists to make a recommendation on where the Soleri works are best positioned, including potentially staying in place.
It’s a pleasing decision for Demion Clinco, the Executive Director of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.
He said dismantling the chapel could lead to it losing its national register eligibility and worries about damages that could occur.
“Our hope is that through this new collaborative stakeholder process that the university has expressed interest in developing that the integrity, spatial configurations, architectural intent and donor intent of that chapel is preserved while finding ways to make public accessibility possible,” Clinco said.
Clinco said he hopes to be included in those stakeholder meetings.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
