June 2003 update:
Plants are being tagged and earth is moving.
We're into the beginning of construction.
And we're into summer, when Tucson is quieter, and the pace is slow.
It's important to note that we still have great low prices for the homes available in Phase One, and the approximate base prices for homes Phase
Two are listed in the "Site Plan" section of our website.. We're pre-selling homes in Phase One and taking reservations for the available units in Phase
Two. Phase Two construction will follow Phase One just as soon as we have the reservations required for the next village.
Call us at 520 293 5290 or email us at Gonefromgenes@aol.com for more detailed information on which units are still available in either Phase.
As Chuck Durrett, a cohousing architect once said: "In a cohousing neighborhood you feel like you have a choice between privacy and community.
With conventional housing your choice is usually between privacy and privacy."
Cohousing is the fastest growing new type of development in the United States today. And why? Because people are leading more harried and hurried
lives and find they need the support of neighbors to make their lives flow more easily with more fun. So ask yourself the following questions:
a) Do I have an interest in living in a safe, supportive and sustainable neighborhood?
b) Does creating a lifestyle where I can have spontaneous quality interaction with neighbors, while having my privacy respected, appeal to me?
c) Do I want to live where I can also have fun on a daily basis?
d) Do I want to live in a place where I know my mere presence helps create a positive influence on a neighbor's life, which then ripples out to the greater
neighborhood and the world?
e) Do I want to begin to change the world for the better?
f) Am I willing to at least really check out this option of being able to put my desires and beliefs into the way I live my every day life?
If you have answered "yes" to even a few of the questions, then come check us out!
Some Interesting Facts about Stone Curves
1. Tucson, Arizona is first and foremost a sunny town, with approximately 350 days of sunshine every year. Here, we basically need only one wardrobe.
We can live outside for many months of the year. It's a low-key place; very informal -- though there's a place for elegance if that's what you're after.
We three growing seasons for the gardener in you. Nearly year-round we offer the possibility of home-gardened fruits and vegetables.
At Stone Curves we have the delight of being close to food shopping and close to organic grocery stores for fresh organic produce and other items.
As well, we have plans for a well-sized Stone Curves community garden.
Tucson is also a home for alternative physicians and other health-oriented practitioners. We offer a large array of alternative disciplines. As well,
we have the University of Arizona and its University Hospital and Health Sciences Center, and the Tucson Heart Hospital. These facilities can
boast of truly top notch researchers and practicing professionals, attracted away from other places because of Tucson's great small-town yet
culturally big-city atmosphere. We have good on and off Broadway theatre, a symphony orchestra, under the baton of a protege of Leonard
Bernstein. We have a Chamber Music Program, Film Festival, Poetry Festival, and there are larger plans afoot to put Tucson on the national
literary map. We also have the largest selection of second-hand stores of anywhere in
the United States - from clothes to records to books.
Tucson has a broad population base which affords it a richness, a texture,a myriad of possibilities.
We are ringed by mountains, and on offer are hundreds of hiking possibilities, again available year-round. There's golf and tennis and horseback
riding. We are home to rabbits and javelina, deer and mountain lions. Tucson is the West, but a much softer version of it! And people from around
the world come to live here.
2. The City of Tucson is walking hand in hand with us, working hard to recreate the upper Stone Avenue corridor into an even better pedestrian-
friendly neighborhood. The City has already committed funds to slow traffic down on the portion of Stone Avenue which borders Stone Curves.
They will begin construction of a landscaped median and crosswalk in September of 2003. Trees will also be planted on either side of Stone
Avenue in that location. It's been shown that trees lining a street helps to slow traffic down. They will also offer us many other benefits! We are
also planning on using earth berms and surrounding curvilinear strawbale walls to create the kind of environment we want both for the inside of
our community and for the larger neighborhood that surrounds us!
3. We are in the midst of the Limberlost Neighborhood Association, formed in late 1999. It is a strong neighborhood association with many links
to the city's government. One of its founders will be moving into our cohousing neighborhood. This neighborhood association evolved out of creation
of the Stone Avenue Wall Mural project. And this art project, which is a 600 foot long mural, stands across the street from our Stone Curves community.
It was voted the best public art mural in Tucson.
4. Since we agreed to cooperatively create a community that is both ecologically sound and economically viable, we have integrated into our
professional team the foremost permaculturist in our area, Brad Lancaster. Brad is working alongside of our hydrologist, civil engineer, and
landscape architect to create one of the best native plant and water
usage environments in Tucson. It is envisioned to be a demonstration
model of what can be done in and for our desert.
4. Our Stone Curves environmental statement centers around an honoring the following environmental "Rs":
- Recycle. Reuse. Reduce: Working to reduce consumption.
- Resourcefulness and respect: Developing wise use of natural resources -- including human resources.
- Re-discovering and re-educating: Fostering a sense of place within the Sonoran Desert for seven generations to come.
- Re-imagining: Fostering a spiritual connetion with the natural world including one another.
- Regenerating: Sustainability depends on reconciling economic, environmental, and social/spiritual interests to assure continued
growth of a diverse, self perpetuating environment.
Stone Curves is inspired in part by CoHousing. Here are answers to the two most frequently asked questions about CoHousing