With Metropica, we are not just promoting economic development, we are place-making.
What is place-making?
Place-making is the process of establishing the heart of a city. It combines a diversity of social experiences - living, working and shopping - in an urban setting that encourages walking and social interaction, thereby promoting a sense of community.
Conceptual view of the Restaurant Village.
Place-making also involves the creation of unique places with lasting value rather than monotonous, run-of-the-mill developments that can be quickly built and sold. We have come to realize that a Publix Supermarket and some attached strip retail development, as useful as it is, does not a place make.
The mall is a place, but it's not very urban and it's really only one use. In a mall, you feel like you're in someone else's place. If you look at the top 10 destinations in America, which include cities such as Boston, New York and San Francisco, they're all about urban places.
Place-making typically occurs in small steps with an occasional leap of great distance. Metropica provides an opportunity to take a rare leap of great distance.
Metropica incorporates all of the elements necessary to establish a true place. It includes working spaces, gathering places and living spaces. These spaces are oriented around a great public space - or public realm.
A public realm is an outdoor space of plazas, greens, a square and walkable streets in the heart of a community with a variety of uses that enables it to become a social gathering place. It is a place that can become a source of civic pride. Key components of Metropica's public realm are its grand central park and its north-south, tree-lined promenade that will connect smaller thematic plazas.
People want a sense of place, someplace that can be a landmark and a focal point that can be identified with by residents.
The concept of place-making developed in response to a demand for communities with more urban, walkable facilities that provide gathering places for socialization and that promote a sense of community.
Suburban areas typically lack a center, a place that establishes the identity for the community and offers residents and visitors an opportunity to come together, and to meet and mingle face-to-face. There is nowhere to take the kids on Saturday and walk around. There's a feeling something is missing.
A suburb - almost by definition - is the antithesis of a true place because it is a conglomeration of single-use zones that discourage social interaction. The key components of living - homes, jobs, houses of worship, entertainment venues and civic institutions - are fragmented into separate areas. Because of this disconnect, a typical suburb lacks a civic heart.
The traditional urban forms of development used to inspire the creation of Metropica exemplify the City of Sunrise's continuing evolution as a metropolitan community with a civic heart and a strong sense of place.
10770 WEST OAKLAND PARK BOULEVARD