The Phoenix
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The Phoenix Coop or Phoenix is a housing cooperative in Madison, WI. It is a part of Madison Community Cooperative.
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[edit] History
The house was built in 1928 in the French Provincial architecture style by Law, Law and Potter, who built West High School as well as many other buildings in Madison. Located at the corner of Lake and Langdon Streets, the house is within a block of both State Street and the University of Wisconsin. It previously housed the Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority and then the Alpha Chi Rho Fraternity.
The building was run as a co-op by MCC under the name Le Chateau. Le Chateau was notable for long being the only MCC house to collectively purchase meat, often serving it at the house dinners, until International Co-operative of Gilman Street, also a meat-eating house, joined MCC in 1992. Le Chateau was also notable for being the only MCC house to apply a simple majority voting system, rather than a consensus-voting system. The house culture was noted for its' relative non-conformity to politically correct values as the core of the house-culture, emphasizing an effort to find artistic and philosophical autonomy from the mainstream of campus culture as well as autonomy from mainstream culture in the broader sense. Le Chateau was often in a degree of conflict with other MCC houses, partly as a result of these divergences.
In the summer of 1995, in response to internal problems, Le Chateau was renamed Meridian, as part of a voluntary and negotiated intervention by MCC that involved a partial review and eviction of house membership by MCC. The transition to Meridian also saw the house go from majority-rule to consensus voting as part of the agreement. In the summer of 1996, due to the continuation of a variety of problems with the membership ranging from non-payment of rent to vandalism, the house was restarted as Phoenix Co-op. The majority of current members of the house were evicted, retaining six members of the former Meridian, and new members were sought. Phoenix is the MCC house closest to the UW-Madison and initially shared the university's "work hard, party hard" ethic, though less than 50% of the members were enrolled at the university. Members of the Phoenix became influential within the wider MCC community and the house established a reputation as a center for MCC parties.
[edit] Membership
In order to become a member, interested parties must attend four regularly scheduled dinners. Following attending the house dinners, a minimum of 6 Phoenix co-op members interview the prospective member at a meeting, scheduled 24 hours in advance.
