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Katie Ryan November 26, 2009 ENG 101 __The Cambridgeside Galleria: Is it a Third Place? __

On the Cambridgeside Galleria’s website, it identifies itself as a “Hip urban center, with a spectacular waterfront location, that offers more than 120 of Boston's favorite stores, specialty boutiques and restaurants”. However I chose to zone in on the food court, or “food festival”, of the Cambridgeside Galleria because I found it the liveliest component of the shopping center. I find it a very interesting location where a wide spectrum of people come together and try out a variety of different cultural foods. This is most likely a result of the diverse neighborhood it is located in and because of its close proximity to a number of hotels, making it a location for tourists to come and visit also. On weekdays you will also see a great number of business people dressed in professional attire, because the Cambridgeside Galleria is located near a number of companies. When you walk into the food court at the Cambridgeside Galleria, you are overcome with the smells of such foods as Italian food to that of Thai Cuisine. The walls and ceilings are adorned with bright neon lights and signs for the various restaurants and there is tables set up from wall to wall. You are likely to hear the sounds of the loud, upbeat music they have playing and all the different languages of the people occupying the food court. After reviewing my notes and the layout of the Cambridgeside Galleria’s Food Court, I have come to the realization that this place, only at certain times of the day, resembles a sort of “Third Place”. I would only call the food court a third place during the slower, less busy times of the day. According to Glenn Reynolds, in order for a location to qualify as a “third place”, it must reach certain criteria. A place must be a public place, which is free, easily accessible, offers food and drink and encourages social interaction (Reynolds,205). When I looked at my notes, I realized that the food court reaches most of this criteria at all times; it is in fact free, easily accessible to the public and does offer a large variety of food and drink. However at the busier times of day it doesn’t really encourage social interaction. It actually does the exact opposite. I noted that on November 11, although it was a holiday and a day off for many, I was at the food court at around lunch hour and it was full of business people grabbing a quick bite to eat. I noted a large amount of things that all pointed to the same conclusion- the people in charge of the food court wanted people in and out as quickly as possible, in order to serve as many patrons as they could during the lunch break time period. There was loud music, extremely bright neon lights, and barely enough room to travel through the tables to find an empty table. Not exactly an environment one would want to stick around and relax in. There were also sanitation workers bustling about in a rush to clear off empty tables, so others could use them. All the sounds I heard within the food court suggested that the workers meant business and were very efficient, I heard the rings of the cash registers and peoples orders being called out. You could hardly say there was any encouragement for social interaction. On the contrary, when I went to observe the Cambridgeside Galleria’s food court on Sunday, November 8 at around three o clock, it seemed like more of a “third place”. I observed many families coming in for a snack with many shopping bags in hand. A big thing I noticed was that there wasn’t many people waiting in for a meal but most were waiting in line for baked goods at Au Bon Pain and for coffee at Dunkin Donuts, probably due to the time of day. The food court was filled with the smells of coffee and cookies. There were many more empty tables and the music was much quieter and slower than it was during the week. People weren’t rushing about, but were instead relaxing over a cup of coffee and staying a while. At this time the food court appeared to be a “third place” because it first off was free, it was easily accessible, and it offered food and drink. And unlike the weekday I observed, there was some social interaction going on such as some elderly people playing chess and others on their laptops. I don’t know if you could say the food court itself encouraged this social interaction but it definitely welcomed it more than it would during a busy time of day. In conclusion, I see the Cambridgeside Galleria’s food court as a “third place” at the more laid back times of day, when it is not full of hungry business people trying to get lunch as quick as possible, but when people come in to relax and maybe grab a snack after a long tiresome day of shopping. And as for the Cambridgeside Galleria being a “hip and urban” center, I think that is true for the shops and sit down restaurants such as the Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Changs, but the food court itself seems to serve its purpose of serving food effectively more than trying to serve the patrons as a hip and urban facility.