DeVos Place in Grand Rapids

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Ode to Grand Rapids

Ode to Grand Rapids, photo by Billy Jack O’Toole.

So I’m going to the 1st annual Grand Rapids International Wine & Food Festival today and wondered what the venue is like. It it cheating for me to turn that into a blog post?

The DeVos Place Convention Center web site says:

The Convention Center features a 162,000 square foot, column free exhibit hall, 40,000 square foot ballroom and 26 individual meeting rooms (32,000 square feet). Twelve spacious loading docks (with a wash bay and marshalling area), allow for easy access into the exhibit hall.

In addition, DeVos Place features a 2,404 seat performing theater with two independent loading docks and one loading ramp. Home to the Grand Rapids Symphony, Grand Rapids Ballet Company, Opera Grand Rapids and Broadway Grand Rapids … part of a vibrant downtown entertainment district featuring over 50 dining establishments, nightclubs, four museums and the 12,000 seat Van Andel Arena, all within walking distance.

You can get an idea of the scale of the facility with their virtual tours and get the nuts and bolts details from Wikipedia’s DeVos Place Convention Center entry. Also check out this Devos Place slideshow and locate Devos Place on Absolute Michigan’s map.

Check out more Grand Rapids photos from Billy Jack!

Winners

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sscherbinski/2997631578/

Winners, photo by scherbis.

Here’s hoping you feel like a winner this week.

Be sure to check it out bigger

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Happy Zombies at the World Record Grand Rapids Zombie Walk

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Untitled, photo by chad℠.

Chad captured this cool view of the likely world record Grand Rapids Zombie Walk. GR based Spout writes:

Thursday, October 30, Grand Rapids, Michigan. A seemingly average midwestern city. Until the zombies invade. A throng of at least 3,370 zombies flowed through the downtown streets (it’s very likely it was over 4,000) to try and break the world record for the largest zombie walk. The event, organized by college sophomore Rob Bliss, shattered the previous record of 1,375, set just a few days earlier in the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville. If Monroeville sounds familiar to zombie fans, it should. The Monroeville Mall was the setting of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.

View a Grand Rapids Zombie Walk slideshow and share your GR Zombie Walk photos right here on Flickr. Much more Halloween fun at Absolute Michigan!

Update: Chad has a Zombie Walk set up now (slideshow).

Art goes green – the Grand Rapids Art Museum

Posted on by farlane

GRAM, photo by numstead

View this photo larger right here and see many more in Nathan’s architectural photography set (slideshow). The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) was the world’s first LEED gold certified art museum complex. The case study of the museum from GreenSource Magazine observes:

This handsome temple of art is, in many respects, a myth-buster. Art museums are widely believed to be “sustainability-proof” because they expend enormous amounts of energy maintaining constant temperature and humidity levels to protect their precious contents. Yet this building reveals that a balance between art and environmentalism is possible if architects, clients, and contractors pursue an integrated approach and factor energy savings into every aspect of the design equation. Sometimes that means borrowing green strategies from conventional structures; sometimes it means using new techniques to satisfy the needs of this demanding building type.

“Typical green solutions are often not best,” says a LEED case study of the museum, prepared by the design and construction team and submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council as part of the museum’s LEED submission.

Designed by Thai-born architect Kulapat Yantrasast of Los Angeles-based wHY Architecture and open since last October, the $75 million, 125,000-square-foot museum fronts on a vibrant, Maya Lin-designed public plaza in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, western Michigan’s largest city. Home to renowned furniture makers Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll, and Haworth, the region already has a rich lode of LEED projects. This one owes its green streak to former Steelcase executive Peter Wege. In 2001, he pledged $20 million, with one string attached: The building would have to be LEED-certified.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that there’s a trend for museums across the country to use green design & construction practices. Also check out this feature from the New York Times about the construction of the museum, the excellent Grand Rapids Art Museum: LEED Gold Certified / wHY Architecture in Arch Daily and this article on the GRAM from Greenline blog (who uses Nathan’s photo).

Here’s a slideshow of views of the GRAM on Flickr and some photography by Kevin Beswick on YouTube.

A walk in the Park

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

A walk in the Park

A walk in the Park, photo by Hooks Pix.

Riverside Park in Grand Rapids that is.

More fall wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures

Creating Cities in Michigan

Posted on by farlane

Lansing, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Traverse City, Marquette and Kalamazoo are by no means all of Michigan’s cities (or even the largest). Each, however, seems to be an anchor for its region – a center to which people look to for culture, entertainment and commerce.

October 13-15, 2008, lovers of cities large & small from Michigan and all over the country will head to Detroit for the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 (CCS2), an exploration of what our cities could become and how we can work to make them. Organizers have chosen Detroit, a city so deeply forged in America’s industrial fires that it’s been devastated by the flickering of that flame. I’m headed down there and will try to bring some of the ideas back to you through Absolute Michigan – I hope that some of you can join me there.

The Photos (left to right)

Creative Cities Summit 2.0 in Detroit on Oct. 13-15, 2008

CCS2 will present a dynamic and engaging conversation about how communities around the world are integrating innovation, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, arts & culture and business to create vibrant economies. Full conference registration is $300 for the two and half day event, and there’s also a “no frills” registration that is only $100. There’s also a free “Unconference” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) on the 12th for designers, urban planners, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, students, community leaders to explore and discuss what’s possible for Detroit.
Keynote speakers include:

  • Bill Strickland, MCG-Bidwell Corp.
  • Richard Florida, Author Who’s Your City
  • Charles Landry, Author The Art of City Making
  • John Howkins, Author The Creative Economy
  • Dean Kamen, Inventor, DEKA
  • Majora Carter, Sustainable South Bronx
  • Doug Farr, Architect and Author Sustainable Urbanism
  • Ben Hecht, Pres. & CEO Living Cities
  • Tom Wujec, Fellow, Autodesk
  • Carol Coletta, CEOs for Cities
  • Giorgio Di Cicco, Poet Laureate, City of Toronto and Author, The Municipal Mind
  • Diana Lind, Editor, Next American City magazine

Breakout sessions on topics such as:

  • Race and the Creative City
  • Cities, Universities & Talent
  • Marketing, Media and the Creative City
  • Measuring New Things – ROI in the Creative Economy
  • Creative (Small) Cities
  • New Ideas in Urban Amenities
  • Community Vitality: The Role of Artists, Gays, Lesbians & Immigrants
  • Midwest Mega-region: How the Midwest Can Compete
  • Transportation Innovation for Cities
  • Making the Scene: Music & Economic Development

Much (much) more at creativecitiessummit.com.

Untitled by chad™

Posted on by farlane

Untitled by chad™

Untitled, photo by chad™

I’m not entirely sure how Chad got the trademark on chad™. I’m thinking it was probably a right place – right time thing.

He has some outstanding photos of unscripted people and things that you can see larger (along with this photo) in his slideshow.

curvilinear

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

curvilinear

curvilinear, photo by powerbooktrance.

Grand Rapids, Michigan … though I’m told the judges would have accepted Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and Pink Floyd: The Lost Album Cover.

Grand Rapids Camera Club seminar by Darrell Gulin

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Painting the Big Red Lighthouse,photo by Darrell Gulin

Painting the Big Red Lighthouse, photo by Darrell Gulin

The Grand Rapids Camera Club and Canon is presenting a day of education and fun with Canon Explorer of Light Darrell Gulin on May 10, 2008. You can get all the details and registration information in the Grand Rapids Flickr group.

Darrell is a full time nature and travel photographer and is past President of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). He makes his home in Sammamish, Washington and you can see much more of his work at his web site, gulinphoto.com. He took this photo when he was in Holland last August giving a program. They did an early morning shoot at the Big Red Lighthouse, painting it with a powerful flashlight.

From the Grand Rapids Camera Club (GRCC) web site, I learned that the GRCC is the oldest camera club in the United States (in continuous and uninterrupted existence) and was organized in 1898 as an outgrowth of the Valley City Photographic Society.

Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Beach ride.

Beach ride., photo by LedaVL.

Leda says this jeep would be her perfect beach cruiser and wonders how much fun this girl could have in the dunes with this baby. She has several more photos from the Grand Rapids auto show as well (also check out her LVL Photography blog).

The annual Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids runs through Sunday (Feb 3) at DeVos Place. In addition to the latest dune conquering technology, there’s new vehicles and concepts, a display from the Gilmore Car Museum and the “Million Dollar Motorway” – featuring vehicles with retail prices over $100,000.

Absolute Michigan went to the 2007 show and brought back this multimedia feature on the Grand Rapids Auto Show that’s a great introduction to the event.