North Jakarta plaza offers kaleidoscopic experience
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
North Jakarta's newest lifestyle and entertainment center, La Piazza, now has a 500-square-meter prism-shaped event center to accommodate large gatherings.
"This is not just a restaurant. It can be used to hold meetings or parties, or even a private fashion show. It's big enough for 350 people," Cut Meutia, Corporate Public Relations Manager of PT. Summarecon Agung Tbk said at the launching of La Prisma on Wednesday evening.
The launching ceremony was enlivened by the presence of eight finalists of the Miss ASEAN 2005 pageant from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, and featured Miss World 2004 Sarah Davies of Australia.
Their attendance was part of the "On the Road to the Final" program, in which the finalists are spending a few days touring Jakarta before the final, which will be held on Saturday at Balai Sarbani, South Jakarta.
The design concept for La Prisma, which is entirely covered with a double-laminated glass combined with composite aluminum, was inspired by the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
The structure which stands at one side of the La Piazza complex, which opened at the beginning of the year to provide a local alternative to the large entertainment centers of South and Central Jakarta, functions as a lounge, restaurant, and event venue for parties, fashion shows and product launchings.
It is managed by the Summarecon Group and the Takigawa Japanese Resto-Lounge.
Cut Meutia said that the La Prisma is the newest addition to La Piazza complex, which combines the concepts of the Cilandak Town Square (Citos) in South Jakarta, and Entertainment X in Central Jakarta.
"The restaurants and cafes are similar to those in Citos. Meanwhile, other facilities, such as the fitness, pool, karoke and spa centers, have been adapted from EX," said Cut Meutia.
"We are trying to provide people from the middle class up with various kinds of leisure facilities ... We also have expatriate visitors, who mainly come from Taiwan, India and Korea. They come here to find food from their home countries," she added.
Cut Meutia said that the 20,000-square-meter La Piazza, which stands on a two-hectare plot of land, has around 10,000 visitors a day, and on weekends the number increases about 20 percent to 30 percent.
"We saw that North Jakarta was lacking this kind of lifestyle and entertainment center. Most of the residents of Kelapa Gading would go to South or Central Jakarta just to express their lifestyles," said Cut Meutia.
Melanie, 30, a Chinese-Indonesian resident of Kelapa Gading, said that she has visited La Piazza a few times along with her family. "Previously I had to make time on weekends to take my family to Citos or EX, or other entertainment centers. But now I don't have to do that anymore," said Melanie.