The first cottage style residence of The Retreat, a 42-condo community at Grand Haven Golf Club, is completed and ready for interested buyers to tour.

 

 

How do college and university campuses know if they're accomplishing the sustainability and environmental quality goals they've set? That's what a new pilot program — Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) — aims to find out.

 

STARS is a pilot program developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Cities, like people, make first impressions, long-lasting impressions on our visitors and others who are in the process of determining where they will live, establish businesses, and raise their families. That can be a good or a bad thing, but for Grand Rapids it’s very positive.

 

We’ve been making a great first impression because of our friendly and talented people, our strong values of hope, family and faith, and our commitment to sustainable growth and renewal. We are making national news for our forward-thinking investments and we are seen by others as a model city for our public-private partnerships and our green approach to the future.

The Grand Rapids Public School system now faces a massive job of upgrading its facilities to establish state-of-the-art learning environments for the 21^st century.

The task is not that different from what private industry has had to do in the past 30 years. Not long ago, the near downtown area of Grand Rapids had many older factories which ultimately were replaced by modern manufacturing facilities. And numerous old buildings have either been replaced by new construction or converted to other uses such as loft housing, retail and offices.

 

 

Aaron Plafkin personifies the old saying, “To whom much has been given, much will be expected.”

 

The 31-year-old spends his days in finance at the Amway Corporation. But he dedicates his free time to volunteering with groups like the Kent County Literacy Council, the United Way, and Gilda’s Club, the cancer support organization. Lately, he’s devoting his time, talent, and treasure to Leading For Our Kids, a newly-formed group of young adults raising money for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Nine mobile murals symbolizing the past, present, and future of Grand Rapids' Southtown neighborhood were unveiled Tuesday, October 30 at a press conference followed by a walking tour of the new art installments. Lighthouse Communities commissioned the murals through the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts to get young people involved in the revitalization of the neighborhood.

 

"We've been working to re-brand the neighborhood as Southtown," says Dave Allen, executive director of Lighthouse Communities. "With the renewed energy and development we thought what a cool opportunity to bring some kids in."

Six mosaic sculptures created by the ArtWorks Summer Program of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA) commemorate the heritage of Grandville Avenue and the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood (RPNA).

Since it was built in 1866 as one of the Federal Union schools that were established around the country at that time, the Old School House has seen a number of uses, most recently as a four-unit apartment building.

Now the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society is knee-deep in transforming the two-story structure into a place where residents can explore the area's history, investigate their family roots, and learn about the region's culture, ecology, and architecture through artifacts and photos.

The $6 million renovation of the former DA Blodgett Home for Children involved the most significant terra cotta restoration project in the history of the state, according to experts at the Michigan Historic Preservation Office.

Much of the restoration of the circa 1908 Italianate orphanage and gardens at 920 Cherry SE centered around the restoration of four 36-foot terra cotta columns and 1,260 smaller terra cotta pieces and balusters.

The US Green Building Council (USGBC) wants to move the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) concept beyond specific buildings to encompass entire neighborhoods. Grand Rapids and several other municipalities have answered the call to participate in a pilot program, LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System (LEED-ND).