North Jakarta plaza offers kaleidoscopic experience

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.