Merdeka Square is the largest urban-scale public open space in Medan which has important meaning in the history of Medan. Since Dutch colonial era, it has been used for various social activities. In 2004, Merdeka Walk constructed on the West part of ‘original’ Merdeka Square and operated since 2005 by the private sector in Medan. Designed by professional architects, the floor level of Merdeka Walk is 60 cm higher than the level of Merdeka Square and they were separated clearly with fence. Merdeka Walk represents design of modern architecture, with light structure, some are tensile structure, which never exist in Medan before. This area is dominated by cafes and restaurants, some are open air and brands of international franchise, such as Pizza Hut and McDonald. There is a little portion of public accessible and ‘no-purchase necessary’ area, namely Center Point, in the form of plaza and a little outdoor sittings around it. Some events such as music and other shows and exhibition carried out in this area sometimes, particularly in special anniversary day celebration.
Meanwhile, under management of city government, there are also some enhancement efforts of Merdeka Square Zone, by redesigning the landscape as well as adding support facilities, such as tot lot, physical exercise instruments and jogging track. In fact, according to respondents, the efforts do not create an ‘attractive and beauty’ feature enough compared with Merdeka Walks. Level of satisfaction of respondent to ‘attractiveness/beauty’ aspect of Merdeka Walk is 3.21, higher than the Merdeka Square’s with 2.96 mean score. This condition confirms what Danisworo (1989) and Car (1992) state that more pleasant public open space could be reach by high quality architecture. But this aspect is not the majority reason of people to visit Merdeka Walk. Only a few respondents state that ‘more attractive’ (15.2 %) and ‘quality of architecture’ (4%) as their reason visit Merdeka Walk. They refer to ‘dining facility’ (71.7%) as majority reason to visit Merdeka Walk.