After mounting public pressure and accusations of violating state law, the University of Arizona has put an indefinite pause on its plan to move parts of the historic Soleri Chapel.
Completed in 1986 by Paolo Soleri, a famed Italian architect and protege of Frank Lloyd Wright, the chapel was set to be taken apart and moved from the Arizona Cancer Center into a “meditation hallway” at the university’s new Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
The Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation launched a campaign in the fall of 2023 to preserve the chapel. The foundation also wrote that the UA was violating state law ARS 41-864 by neglecting to “engage with stakeholders” and failing to “consult with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office.”
The city’s preservation foundation claimed that, by “harvesting” and moving only parts, the UA would essentially destroy the chapel.
“After further discussions, the university is pausing indefinitely on this project,” said Pam Scott, a spokeswoman for the UA. “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,” Scott said.
The university’s original plan was to move the chapel’s decorative bells, wall sculpture and five ceiling panels to the new space. The move, the UA stated at the time, was meant to “highlight Mr. Soleri’s works in a new meditation room, where they will be more accessible.”
For now, however, all pieces are staying put.
“I was relieved to see that the university recognized the need to step back and put this on an indefinite pause,” said Demion Clinco, president of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.
“But with that said, we also continue to be concerned about the how the University of Arizona interprets the Arizona State Historic Preservation Act and how they see their role in managing and conserving our state’s historic assets that are under their purview.”
The state law cited by Clinco mandates that “the state historic preservation officer has 30 working days in which to review and comment on any plans of a state agency which involve property which is included or may qualify for inclusion on the Arizona register of historic places.”
The Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation submitted a public records request to see emails shared between the UA and the state preservation officer. The emails, Clinco said, prove “noncompliance” with the state’s law.
Kathryn Leonard, the state’s historic preservation officer, sent repeated emails to UA officials working on the project to express her concern over the way the university was handling the chapel, according to the emails obtained by the records request.
Leonard called the UA’s communications “extremely troubling both for this project and for how the university views its responsibilities to consult with our office under relevant state statutes.”
In an email sent Dec. 26, 2023, Leonard wrote that “as it stands, and as a matter of record, the University of Arizona is non-compliant with the state’s Historic Preservation Act.”
She also wrote that she had asked for “sufficient information about the property” multiple times and had yet to receive the necessary information.
Leonard did not respond to a request for comment, and the UA’s comment on the pause did not include any information about claims of noncompliance with state law.
Just over two weeks after Leonard sent her email, the UA announced the project’s pause.
One of the reasons the university wanted to move parts of the chapel was because the current location is now an office building, making the art inaccessible to most Tucsonans.
The foundation would like to see the chapel moved, too, Clinco said. It put up a fight, he said, because the university only planned to move parts of the chapel instead of the whole thing.
“We really look forward to productive engagement with the University of Arizona in the coming months about a solution that would meet the new needs for the public to access the space and also protect the resource for future generations,” he said.
Despite that, Clinco said his group has not yet been contacted by the university to help.
“We actually haven’t engaged in any sort of formal process yet,” he said. “Our organization plans to continue to monitor this situation and the status of the chapel to make sure that this pause isn’t discontinued.”
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