Living ‘car-free’ in the Arizona desert

A Harvard researcher with a heat gun last summer measured the temperatures on the Tempe, Arizona, sidewalk at 137°F—but inside a new car-free development the plaza surface was 90°F. 

That’s one eye-opening data point offered in a new video of Culdesac Tempe, one of the most-closely watched US developments. Culdesac Tempe has been open for less than a year, just the first phase completed, and the village center has a grocer, restaurant, gym, and various shops. The grocer fills a gap in the neighborhood, because there’s no supermarket within a mile.

Culdesac is not the first new urban community in the southwest to be measured for local cooling. More thoroughly documented tests in Civano in Tuscon yielded dramatic differences with similar (although less dense) design moves.

The video by Kirstin Dirksen, who has 1.89 million subscribers, includes interviews with residents that indicate the design is working as planned. As one YouTube comment notes, “Humans can thrive here. Love that they have created a little oasis in the hot climate. Having a cooler place to meander, be outdoors and meet with a friend (and not be stuck indoors) would make a world of difference to mental health.”

Culdesac is organized around a commercial plaza, paseos, and small private plazas that are inspired by the Barrio Viejo in Tucson, and Greek and Italian villages. Architect Dan Parolek calls it “desert responsive urbanism.” The project is cooler due to the shade from buildings throughout the tight passages and small plazas, the predominantly white buildings and roofs that reflect sunlight, and the lack of asphalt (permeable, cooler pavement and even compacted dirt line the narrow paseos). In the video you can see this working, shot midday but nobody is squinting or needs a hat. Culdesac also features all-native landscaping, including bull grasses, mesquite trees, sages, aloes—all of which are drought tolerant, and “part of creating the microclimate,” a spokesperson notes.

There is a small amount of parking for visitors and to support the retail, but residents are offered no place to store cars. The lack of cars within the 17-acre development allows for tight, shady urbanism that serves people on foot and bicycles. Culdesac needed relief from Tempe's parking requirements to be approved, the video reports.

The town center and paseos are open to everybody, but there are “micro-community hubs” that are gated—each one has a small plaza with seating, landscaping, a water feature, art, and grills for cookouts. “It feels close-knit and private without being stifling,” notes one resident. 

The development is located adjacent Phoenix’s light rail line, with frequent service downtown and to other locations. Even though Culdesac is on a busy thoroughfare (with the rail service), the interior plazas are peaceful due to sound blocking from the buildings. “I don’t think I have heard a single car since I have been here,” says a resident. The video asks residents about rent—$1,800 for a one-bedroom, which is market rate for a transit-oriented site in Tempe. 

The cranky network of paseos means that you can’t see around corners, which lends the pedestrian experience some drama. The Culdesac developers thought they would take the commute time out of the day, and replace that with walking and interacting with neighbors. Even with only about a quarter of living spaces occupied, the video did show some social life in the plazas. “The way we have built cities around the automobile has slowly taken that away from us,” the developer spokesperson explains.

See other Public Square coverage of Culdesac. Here, here. See the whole video:

This article addresses CNU’s Strategic Plan goals of advancing design strategies that help communities adapt to climate change and mitigate its future impact and working to change codes and regulations blocking walkable urbanism.