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VINTAGE THOUGHTS A Third Place That Feels Just Right
VINTAGE THOUGHTS A Third Place That Feels Just Right
By Chris Patusky
When I was working as Director of the Office of Real Estate with the Maryland Department of Transportation in 2008, a year before my wife Kiernan and I ordered the 10,000 vines that would become the start of Slater Run Vineyards, I was in a meeting to discuss a new downtown Baltimore development project.
A brilliant young planner said something like, “We need to build a public space at the heart of the project that becomes a third place.” I was intrigued by that phrase, “third place,” and raised my hand to ask what he meant by it.
“In every person’s life,” he said. “they have two places where they spend most of their lives—their home and their workplace—and they need a third place to go where they can be part of a community and enjoy a different part of life.”
I recall smiling and feeling rather inspired by this concept of third place.
That Baltimore project was not built, and that third place was not created, at least not there. But, on a smaller rural scale, I’d like to think we’ve created a third place here at the vineyard, one that meets most of the characteristics of “third place” that were laid out by sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book, “The Great Good Place.”
Those characteristics include:
• Neutral Ground: No one is obligated to be here by political, financial, legal or other reasons, and you can come and go as you please.
• Leveler: No importance is put on your individual status, there are no admissions requirements, we are all equally part of this commonality.
• Conversation: Talking is the main activity, the primary thing going on, and it is mostly lighthearted, relaxed and often humorous;
• Accessibility and Accommodation: The space must be readily accessible to all, and it provides for everyone’s needs.
• Regulars: Third places tend to have “regulars” who give it a tone, set a mood, and make newcomers feel welcome.
• A Low Profile: It’s a wholesome place, without extravagance or grandiosity, or snobbiness, or pretension, and it’s cozy and accepting of all types from all places.
• A Playful Mood: Discussion is not tense or hostile. Wittiness and frivolity are common and valued, and whimsy dances in the spoken word.
• A Home Away from Home: You feel the warmth, possession and belonging that you feel in your home, and a rootedness that offers spiritual regeneration.
Sometimes things just happen organically because you feel they should be a certain way, and so you do that. Sometimes you also have a hard time defining what that certain way might be.
In business you might say something is “on brand” or “off brand.” Here at Slater Run, we sort of know how we want things to be, and our talented team seems to know when something is right. I also believe that subconsciously, we all share a desire to create and to inhabit a “third place.”
