I’m missing my ‘third places’

By: J. David Chapman/March 26, 2020

It is difficult to continue writing a weekly column on real estate when there is significant anxiety in the community. While the built environment is important to me, it pales in comparison to the health and welfare of our citizens. In this column, I often write about community, placemaking, and the importance of the “third place” in our life. In community building, the third place refers to the social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home (first place) and work (second place). Examples of third places are cafes, churches, clubs, bars, pubs, gyms, parks or libraries.

We are taking a brief hiatus from our third places we love. We are finding other ways to communicate with those we typically see at our third place. I hate it, but completely understand and support the necessity at this time. We frequently refer to the third place when attracting an innovative workforce of millennials. As a college professor, I have a front-row seat to the undeniable desires of millennials and their need to communicate, network, and collaborate with like-minded, creative, and intelligent peers. I am convinced that they will seek out a community that will provide these opportunities within walking distance of their first and second place.

Oklahoma has been challenged and slow to build the type of mixed-use real estate projects that typically work well accommodating convenient third places. This is because of our automobile dependency, lack of density of our cities, and little ability to walk or bike anywhere. I am hopeful that these challenges will actually be part of the solution to controlling and bringing a quick end to this pandemic.

I have been teaching the importance of third place for some time. While we have been busy trying to make accommodations for millennials and their desire for third place, I think many of us in the built environment, such as architects, developers, and builders, have failed to realize the importance to other generations.

I am confident that after we get through this tragedy that is the pandemic, that every generation will have a renewed appreciation for their third place and anxiously call up their friends and family and meet at their favorite church, coffee shop, bar, pub, cafe, club, gym, park or library.pman

J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).