A dynamic lady in Paradise Valley Liz Martin-Malikian, the CEO/Executive Director of the Cosanti Foundation, was just selected one of Women We Admire’s Top 50 Women Leaders of Arizona for 2023, according to the organisation.

The list was made public on July 17 via the organization’s website, which notes that the recipients “have played a significant role in fostering positive change and advancing the development of their organisations. We honour each for their contributions to their local communities as well as their professional accomplishments.

According to a press release, The Cosanti Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation with two signature properties in Arizona. It aims to show how construction and community can provide an alternative to sprawl development and a solution to current social and environmental crises.

The hundreds of tourists who have come to this cultural gem in Paradise Valley can recognise the surreal buildings and homes that make up Cosanti. These intriguingly inventive original buildings, which were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, helped Cosanti win a spot on the Arizona Registry of Historic Places. Paolo Soleri (1919–2013), an Italian-born architect, urban planner, and philosopher, created Cosanti. Less than ten of his projects—including Cosanti—have persisted.

The novel structures at Cosanti were made by Soleri using his “earth-casting” method on a huge scale in 1956. Many of these odd spaces were constructed almost counterintuitively, from the roof down and from the outside in, by first building a concrete shell over mounded dirt. The walls and roof of the structure were created by excavating the earth beneath this shell.