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Community Center for Alta Sita
Design Ideas

Change Comes from power and power comes from Organization.
Alinsky
We consider a Tower shaped community center to be a successful design solution for Alta Sita.

General overview of a tower with a public plaza outside.

Schematic plan illustrating the floor divisions.
The first floor is divided into interior spaced by movable walls, creating enclosures for various activities, such as legal consultations, neighborhood meetings, ets. The second floor could serve as a network information center.

Schematic section of the tower demonstrating vertical circulation.

The Alta Sita Tower could become a powerful landmark and a successful community building in Alta Sita. The major purpose of the Tower is to bring together the Community activity that is now scattered throughout the churches of Alta Sita. (ref. Alta Sita Magnets), as well as become the home of the new community activities. We want the Tower to become the nucleus of Alta Sita infrastructure, a center of communication network within the community. The design language of the Tower could be transmitted throughout the entire community by the means of implementing its design elements into the street lighting throughout the Alta Sita, as well as street signs, and billboards.
the major activities to be held in the Tower would respond to the major goals of Community organizing:

   -Housing
   -Government and Politics
   -Poverty
   -Health
   -Welfare
   -Police, Courts, Lawyers
   -Consumer Action
   -Education
   -Business and Industry
   -Unions and Jobs
   -Environmental Safety

Instead of becoming a bureaucratic enterprise with numerous offices the tower could become a place for a forum within the community and the permanent home of Alta Sita Community organization. The spaces of the tower could function as settings for multiple activities.
It should be able to accommodate
- visiting lawyers, consulting the inhabitants of Alta Sita regarding the legal issues
- educational workshops, and job fairs
- a house for neighborhood meetings, and center of consolidating the issues of concern, that subsequently could be addressed on the city level
- a center of community network - the internet connection terminals for the Alta Sita inhabitants
- a cultural center housing recreational activities and art exhibitions.
- a meeting center for Alta Sita singles, teens, tweens and elderly, as well as families.
The size of the Tower is still undetermined, as well as the site.
We would prefer it to be centrally located in Alta Sita. Our next visit to the site would provide an opportunity for additional information that could help us make a decision.
The tower should be relatively small so that it would be easy to plug it in within the existing parcel network.

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