Organizers of the Stack Center, a future South Hayward community plaza, cultural center, and service hub, held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate Phase 1 of the project’s completion on March 14.
Located on the corner of Ruus Road and Panjon Street, the Stack Center will feature facilities such as a childcare center, pediatric clinic, homework help center, and more. Contributors of the project include local organizations like La Familia, Hayward Area Recreationand Park District (HARD), Eden Youth, Kidango, and the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center.
These partners will contribute to the center’s services as the project moves to completion. For instance, La Familia will host a behavioral health clinic, the Alameda County Office of Education will have a classroom space, and Kidango will operate the childcare centers.
The ribbon cutting ceremony marked the end of Phase 1 of the project, which included the childcare center, community events plaza, and a renovation of the Matt Jimenez Gymnasium.
Karen Halfon, Executive Director of the Eden Youth and Family Center, hopes this project will “activate” South Hayward.
“South Hayward doesn’t have any space like this,” said Halfon. “So to have a place where there’s going to be a cafe, and on the weekends there’s going to be something in their neighborhood that they can do, that hasn’t been. It’s never been.”
To ensure the center would meet the community’s needs, developers met with 19 young people in 2020 who participated in discussions on the design over the course of about six months.
“The idea was to engage them in their strength and use their strength to the benefit of the project,” said lead architect Mallory Kusenberry. “They had wonderful insights, wonderful ideas, creative ideas, and we just did a lot of exercises over the period of several months to have them contribute to the design and the character of the project in a meaningful way.”
Although the Stack Center has been a 20-year dream for the community, the building’s design development began around 2019, according to Kusenberry. It extended through the pandemic, causing developers to work virtually during quarantine.
“With the pandemic, we had a lot of starts and we had to stop for various reasons, so I feel honored and celebratory to be here and be able to celebrate with everyone,” said Mary Thomas, Assistant to the City Manager and a project manager of the Stack Center. “It’s very important to have places to gather so you feel that sense of community, that sense of aliveness, that there is a place to be.”
Thomas said the project could be finished by the end of 2027 if organizers are able to raise enough funds to address their current funding gap. Community members can visit stackcenter.org to donate or sign up for updates.
