In the Spring of 2006, the Advanced Site Design studio of second year graduate students and fifth year undergraduates engaged a community design process to explore alternative strategies for the town center in the town of Aquinnah, Massachusetts.

As a result of an earlier vision planning process, the town acquired four acres of land behind existing municipal facilities, with the aim to redesign for possible community uses. The Steering Committee requested design assistance from the CCDR, which coordinated the service learning project through the site design studio. CCDR staff and studio faculty designed and facilitated a design workshop series over an April weekend. These workshops were set up for community members to provide their input to the student design team about the opportunities surrounding the development of a town center. 

Through the workshop activities and a photo survey, community members shared places that were sacred to them, the characteristics of the town and region that they valued, and the quality of development that they wanted to occur in Aquinnah. 

The first workshop on Friday night included a series of activities aimed at discovering participants' vision of a town center, the program elements that they wanted to include in the town center, and the placement of various program elements on the property that would allow for the preservation of protected or highly valued resources. During the Saturday work session students synthesized this information to create a series of program diagrams that reflected the needs and values expressed by the community. At the final workshop on Sunday, the students ideas were presented to the community. A discussion followed each presentation through which participants were able to provide comments and ideas and help students further refine their designs.