Asked if he visits his former home of Santa Monica, Vincent Volta responded, “No. I’m through with California.”

Seated outside the Sedona Public Library at lunch time, the suntanned 58-year-old opened his box of cookies and took another bite. Volta enjoys coming to the library, which he considers the cultural and social center of the city he has come to call home over the course of the last eight years.

“Sedona is a fabulous micro-climate, providing nature that speaks to you. There’s adventure everywhere you go,” Volta, an avowed lover of nature, said. “I felt kind of run over in California.

Everybody’s going at such a breakneck pace and there are so many people …. The flow is too frantic.”

He acknowledged that his own story is a common one — he came to Sedona to visit and “fell in love.” His mother had made it easier for him to visit, of course, having lived in Sedona for 24 years before Volta made his own move.

An architect and engineer, in California Volta worked for an international firm with 430 other employees. He designed and built structures in 11 major cities outside the United States and three major cities within the U.S.

Now, he finds himself working for contracts in Sedona — but do not assume that Volta is bored with these smaller-scale projects, because this is far from the truth. Currently, he is bidding on two large corporate projects within city limits. Both opportunities speak to him, as he believes that “adding corporate features is exciting for Sedona’s future.”

To read the full story, see the Friday, Jan. 16, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.