The Vulcan Compound at Sauselito

[Lady Rainbow]

I know that T'Pol lived there for a time, but does anyone know how the Compound's laid out? Is it a walled/gated community? What kind of buildings (besides housing) might be in the Compound? Or is it just a section of San Francisco, like Chinatown?

Any ideas? Thanks.

[honeybee]

When I was a child, I lived in the American Compound on Aruba - later changed to the more politically correct "Community" - but it was a closed, walled community that was self-contained and most everything inside was in English. Although, Aruba being Aruba, it was fairly open and people came and went. I know people who lived in far more closed, secure compounds in places like Libya and Saudia Arabia. I think the term "compound" implies an enclosed, large and fairly self-contained community that would provide Vulcans a Vulcan community.

But we also know that some Vulcans, such as Trip's teacher, lived and worked outside the compound.

[Aquarius]

I've never been in a "compound" before, but as for other buildings, I'd imagine they'd have the standard stuff any community would--a shrine/temple, school for their kids, a friendly neighborhood Vulcan grocery store maybe? Office buildings?

[Lady Rainbow]

Cool! This really helps, Honeybee! I lived overseas for 5 1/2 years, but not in a "community" like that.

I'm imagining a Vulcan bakery/food store in it, where they could get ingredients and specialties from home that they can't get elsewhere. Maybe a school for the children of diplomats (and others who would rather stay in the compound for whatever reason) and maybe a place where they can acquire native dress. And a temple...that'd be really cool, Aquarius! Makes sense they'd have one there too.

And I'm sure there could be similar "communities" set up in the future for Andorians, etc.

[honeybee]

The American Compound in Aruba included housing, an office building, an American school, a non-denominational Christian church that had the liturgy of several denominations in English (including Jewish ceremonies), an American school, a social club that had a food shop/restaurant, a movie theater and doctor's offices. At one time, there was a hospital.

Since the hotels all sold American clothing, there wasn't a clothing shop. However, in places like Saudia Arabia where western clothing was not available, clothing shops were there.

So, I can imagine the Vulcan Compound had office buildings, housing, a temple, recreational areas as well as a shopping area and a health clinic and a school.

Housing is always given out by pecking order. So, you could tell how "high up" your Dad (it was all Dads back then) by where your house was located.

[Aquarius]

I thought maybe a library, but with the advent of the Information Age, maybe not?

[honeybee]

Well, Vulcans have been seen reading paper books - and libraries are currently evolving into cultural centers - places where people can read, study and meet for research and perhaps access data that for security reasons is not available in private homes. And maybe a library would have beautiful paper books, maps and photographs that were available to human researchers as well as Vulcan ones.

[aadarshinah]

I always imagined the Vulcan Compound as something like the military bases I lived on when I was younger - Kadena AFB in particular. It was walled, of course, with gaurds and restricted access, but if you had business or certain permits you could get on even if you weren't military or a dependant. In Okinawa, Japan, it was a little bit of the states and (if I recall correctly, which I might not, having been quite young when I lived there) the roads went back to the drive-on-the-right on the base.... Anyway, it was the sort of place where you never heard Japanese outside of elementary and middle school language classes and everything from the buildings on down screamed of American influance, rather than Japanese....

[bluetiger]

In my story 'Pass the Plomeek', I described the Vulcan compound in just such a way.

"The Vulcan compound consisted of many buildings. There were offices, quarters, restaurants, and shops. The most impressive building however was a Vulcan temple. Most of the materials had been imported from Vulcan, with only a small amount of local product used. It was very authentic and very beautiful."

We are all thinking along the same lines I guess. I needed a Vulcan temple for T'San's naming ceremony and a place for T'Pol to shop for fresh Vulcan vegetables.

[Silverbullet]

I have lived in compounds and Communities. Depended on the location. My first post in Germany the community was called "Westchester on the Rhine" In islamabad and new Delhi we lived on a compound which had housing. a commisary, restaurant, bowling alley and swimming pool aslo the Marine house. the school was right across the street on one side and the Embassy across the street on the other side. The one in Islamabad was walled and also in New Delhi. didn't do a lick of good. The Embassy in Islamabad was stormed and the Embassy burned. People had to take shelter in the Vauult.

Communities are better. more can be available, churches, schools, clubs, Movies, Tennis courts, Swimming pool indoors. While a comoound is restricted due to the Walls and the need to keep it small so it can be protected better.

I don't believe the Vulcan compound had to be protected from violence but for the Vulcan sense of privacy. any needs the Vuclans might have would be on the compound.

[Linda]

I think I mentioned the Vulcan compound in my stories but I never described it. This thread is giving me some ideas though, in case I ever did need to describe it in a story. But in the back of my mind, I saw it as a walled community which was usually open to visitors but could be locked down when there was trouble. I'm thinking it probably was locked down at times when Terra Prime was most active after the Xindi attack. And I have an idea that eventually the walls were torn down and it became just another open ethnic community in the San Francisco area by the time of TOS, a hundred years after the time of Star Trek: Enterprise. Does anyone else think this might be so?

[honeybee]

I love the idea that by the TNG era - the Vulcan compound becomes an open neighborhood - a Vulcan Chinatown - where people go to eat Vulcan food, buy Vulcan books and clothes and just soak up Vulcan culture.

[Elessar]

I dealt with the "Vulcan Compound" a fair bit in YMAM, with Trip visiting it once, and I basically had it as just, sort of like a great big embassy with grounds. I'm not sure it'd really be "walled" so to speak, but maybe naturally separated from the rest of the city by like a really wide courtyard. I guessed it'd be somewhere around the size of the national mall with several buildings and probably the embassy at the center. Dormitories for embassy officials, stuff like that.

I did always find it strange it was in Sausalito and not just right next to Starfleet Command down in San Francisco, near the presidio. I'm not from the bay area by any means but I dealt with lots of coming and going in YMAM3 so I did a lot of looking at maps and that area. Sausalito's a fair bit across the bay from Starfleet Command, kind of in the middle of what is now an up-scale swaggy bayside condo area.

[aadarshinah]

Well, transports can go pretty fast, so I guess the comute wouldn't be far in that day in age...

Though I kinda do think the compound would be walled or force-feilded or something. Earth and Vulcan may be allies, but I'm betting there was a lot of anti-alien sentiment in the early days of their relationship, as in the direct aftermath of the Xindi attack. A wall could be a level of actual protection, or at least a cursory one to desuade most of the less-extreme anti-alien detractors.

[Alelou]

I dealt with the "Vulcan Compound" a fair bit in YMAM, with Trip visiting it once, and I basically had it as just, sort of like a great big embassy with grounds. I'm not sure it'd really be "walled" so to speak, but maybe naturally separated from the rest of the city by like a really wide courtyard. I guessed it'd be somewhere around the size of the national mall with several buildings and probably the embassy at the center. Dormitories for embassy officials, stuff like that.

I did always find it strange it was in Sausalito and not just right next to Starfleet Command down in San Francisco, near the presidio. I'm not from the bay area by any means but I dealt with lots of coming and going in YMAM3 so I did a lot of looking at maps and that area. Sausalito's a fair bit across the bay from Starfleet Command, kind of in the middle of what is now an up-scale swaggy bayside condo area.

It makes sense to me. Do you have any idea how expensive real estate in San Francisco is?