Highland | City Club 7.12.0

WHO WE ARE

• No man is an island. Even black sheep need to belong. City Club’s community offers a shared safe place, allowing our members to feel accepted for who they are. We are the young and the old. We transcend race, gender, and religious belief. We are the young entrepreneur operating on a shoestring and the seasoned business person wanting to give back. We are not separated by our politics. We are the artist, scientist, educator, and retiree. We embrace them all. Each voice counts equally. A tall order, perhaps, but we’ve been at it for four decades.

OUR STORY

• Built in the midst of a gold rush boom which began in 1890, Highland was Boulder’s fourth permanent school, designed to withstand fire and flood (hence its name: High-land). After the out-migration of American families from central cities to the suburbs in the 1950s and 60s, Highland was forced to close due to a lack of students. In 1978, Sina Simantob bought the then-abandoned Highland School and has been working on its renovation, adaptive reuse, and addition of residences since then. Sina considers himself a self-designated custodian of Highland, declaring “Highland was here before my grandfather was born, and will be here after my grandchildren are gone. I am fortunate to be a temporary custodian of this great property for a short while."

OUR COMMUNITY

• A Utopian Oasis?! One may have read a hundred books, consider oneself to be an intellectual, and hold a certain vision of the ideal utopian oasis. Few, in fact, truly understand what that means and how to achieve it. There can even be danger in confusing a utopia with a cult. The Highland approach in the creation of an ideal place to live, work, learn, and have fun is more scientific and is rooted in what we now know about how our brain’s function.
• Humans possess a triune brain i.e. three distinguishable brain components that require simultaneous and coordinated nourishment to support a happy and productive life. The core reptilian brain seeks food, shelter, and security. City Club addresses this fundamental need by offering the finest cuisine as well as the most aesthetically pleasing, functional, and secure shelter around (hence the club's byline "Securus Locus"). City Club then fulfills the mammalian brain's longing for heart-based connection through an established community of diverse and enlightened members.
• But it's at the outer neocortex level, seeking knowledge and intellectual stimulation, where City Club's utopian ideal is most evident. Imagine; having a delicious nutritional lunch while discussing Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato and their take on democracy; or learning how Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Rafael all happened to be in Florence at the same time to light the fuse under the Renaissance.
• How about a conversation amongst Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison to determine if you lean to the right or the left of the political center? Add a few lessons on the Enneagram and Alchemy and toss in a dash of cash and technology from Silicon Valley, and hopefully you agree our little oasis in Boulder is as close to a Utopia as it comes.