The prehistoric Stonehenge monument and other archaeological sites offer ample evidence of human  civilization’s enduring need for communal gathering spaces, those places where people  can come  together for celebration, ritual, and the mundane (1). These places are what sociologist Ray Oldenburg  coined third places (2)—places unlike the private, informal home and the public, formal workplace,  being both informal and public. These are places where people gather and socialize deliberately or casually (3): meet friends, cheer for the home team with fellow fans, or just sit to  people-watch. Third places are defined by their “ordinariness”(4)  and allow people to meet, relax, play, and just be, with minimal cost to themselves (5). Third places have been shown to strengthen social capital (6), foster social connection (7), and boost diversity (8)  and well-being (9). They also serve as “enabling places” (10)  that promote recovery from mental illness by providing social and material REFERENCES: 1. Ellard, 2018; 2. Oldenburg, 1999; 3. Soja, 1996; 4. Hickman, 2013; 5. Cheang, 2002; Finlay, Esposito, Kim, Gomez-Lopez, & Clarke,2019; Oldenburg, 1999; Thompson & Kent, 2014; 6. Lifszyc-Friedlander et al., 2019; 7. Klinenberg, 2018; Williams & Hipp, 2019; 8. Klinenberg, 2018; Williams & Hipp, 2019; 9. Cattell, Dines, Gesler, & Curtis, 2008; 10. Duff, 2012 FULL REPORT: https://www.hksinc.com/how-we-think/research/connecting-irl-how-the-built-environment-can-foster-social-health/