Grand Rapids, also known as Furniture City, is the second largest city in the US state of Michigan. It is the seat of the county administration (County Seat) of Kent County in the southwestern part of the state.
Grand Rapids is 600 feet (188 m) above the Grand River, where a
series of rapids used to be.
According to the US Bureau of
Statistics, the city has an area of 117.4 km².
The area of what would later become Grand Rapids was first settled
after the 1820's by Christian missionaries and fur traders who were
generally at peace with the Odawa tribe who lived near the Grand River.
The official founder of Grand Rapids was Louis Campau, who traded
there with the Indians from November 1826. Immigrants from New York and
New England arrived after 1830.
Grand Rapids officially
became a city on May 1, 1850, when the community of 2,686 people voted
to adopt the city charter.
In the second half of the 19th
century, the city became a major center of the lumber industry and a
leader in the United States in the field of furniture production. The
city also became a focal point for Dutch immigration in the 19th
century.
On January 25, 1945, Grand Rapids became the first
American city to add fluoride to its drinking water to prevent tooth
decay.
After Newsweek magazine described Grand Rapids as a "dying
city" due to declining population development, the world's longest
lipdub at the time, nine minutes, was shot in Grand Rapids in May 2011
with the participation of over 5,000 residents and published on the
video platform YouTube. It's a version of Don McLean's folk rock classic
American Pie.
On November 2, 2020, unknown persons desecrated the
100-year-old Jewish cemetery of the conservative synagogue community of
Ahavas (Congregation Ahavas Israel). Several tombstones were
spray-painted red with the words "Trump" and "MAGA." The latter stands
for US President Donald Trump's motto Make America Great Again. The
Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus spoke of a threatening message to
Jewish voters.
Van Andel Arena
The Van Andel Arena is a multi-purpose arena in
the US city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The hall was named after
entrepreneur couple Jay Van Andel and his wife Betty. They donated $11.5
million to construct the building. The primary user of the Van Andel
Arena is the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team of the American Hockey
League (AHL), who have played in the arena since it opened.
A
good one and a half years after the start of construction on February 8,
1995, the Van Andel Arena was opened on October 6, 1996. The $76 million
arena will seat 11,000 hockey spectators, 10,618 arena football seats,
11,500 basketball seats and up to 13,184 concert seats. Other athletic
users were the Grand Rapids Rampage arena football team of the Arena
Football League (AFL) from 1998 until its dissolution in 2008. The Grand
Rapids Hoops basketball team from the Continental Basketball Association
(CBA) also played their home games here from 1996 to 2001.
In
addition to sports, the hall is also often used as a concert arena.
Country musicians like Kenny Chesney, Kacey Musgraves, Garth Brooks with
Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw with Faith Hill often perform
there. But artists and bands from other musical genres such as the
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Prince, The Beach Boys, Josh Groban, Kid Rock,
Aerosmith, ZZ Top, The Pretenders, KISS, Snoop Dogg and Marilyn Manson
were guests in the Van Andel Arena. On May 15, 2008, the future 44th
President of the United States, Barack Obama, held a campaign event as
part of the Democratic presidential primary in the packed multi-purpose
arena. Beginning in the 2022-23 season, the Grand Rapids Gold basketball
team from the NBA G-League will play games at the Van Andel Arena.
Grand Rapids Art Museum
The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is an
art museum in Grand Rapids with collections ranging from Renaissance to
modern art, as well as special collections of 19th and 20th century
European and American art. The museum has 5,000 works of art in its
collection, including over 3,500 prints, drawings and photographs. The
museum was founded in 1910 under the name Grand Rapids Art Gallery.
Originally housed in a former residence at 230 Fulton Street, it moved
to the historic Federal Building at Pearl Street in 1981.
In
2004, construction began on a new green museum building that would be
the world's first LEED-certified art museum. The 11,600 square meter
building with 1,900 square meters of gallery and exhibition space is
LEED Gold certified. In 2002, the London office of Munkenbeck+Marshall
Architects was appointed architect for the new building and developed
the design from the first concept to the construction documentation. In
the summer of 2004, the museum board ended Munkenbeck+Marshall's
commitment and commissioned the architect Kulapat Yantrasast from wHY
Architecture with the realization of the project.
Exhibitions
(selection)
2017-2018: Andy Warhol's American Icons
2017: Black
Waves: The Tattoo Art of Leo Zulueta
2016: Maureen Nollette:
Honorable Ordinaries
2015-2016: Reynold Weidenaar: A Retrospective
Michigan Artist Series
During its 100-year history, the Grand
Rapids Art Museum has featured the work of Michigan artists in its
exhibition program. This tradition is now presented in the Michigan
Artist Series in galleries throughout the museum. It will highlight the
work of living artists or designers working in a variety of media and
residing in the state.
John Ball Park
Calvin College
Devos Place Convention Center
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
John Ball Zoo
Grand
Rapids Art Museum
The citizens of Grand Rapids introduced the council manager system in
1916. Since then, political responsibility has been shared between the
mayor and the employed city manager, who is appointed by the council.
The Council only has a legislative function.
Former US President
Gerald Ford lived in Grand Rapids for a long time, which is why the
Gerald Ford Presidential Museum is dedicated to him here. In Grand
Rapids on May 14, 2008, former Democratic presidential nominee John
Edwards announced his support for Barack Obama's presidential
nomination.
Business
The Grand Rapids metro area had a gross
domestic product of $58.5 billion in 2016, ranking 53rd among the
metropolitan areas of the United States. The unemployment rate in the
metro area was 2.9 percent, below the national average of 3.8 percent.
(Status: March 2018).
Grand Rapids has long been a center of the
American furniture industry. At the latest with the world exhibition in
Philadelphia in 1876, it became known internationally as a furniture
city. Although the importance of the furniture industry has declined
since the 1960s, Grand Rapids is still the world leader in the
production of office furniture. Among others, the Kindel Furniture
Company, the Grand Rapids Chair Company and Steelcase are resident. More
recently, several biotechnology companies have joined, in addition to
the Van Andel Medical Institute and the new Cook-Devos Medical Training
Facility, part of Grand Valley State University, and the new Michigan
State University Medical Training Facility.
Gerald R. Ford
International Airport is located near Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids
is the venue for ArtPrize, a biennial art exhibition that is
decentralized throughout downtown. Altogether prizes with a total value
of more than 500,000 US dollars will be awarded. The event claims to
bring half a million tourists and several million US dollars to the
local economy.
Since 2014, the city has been home to the NBA Development League Team
Grand Rapids Drive. The team plays its home games in the DeltaPlex
Arena. The city also has an American Hockey League team, the Grand
Rapids Griffins, who play their home games at Van Andel Arena. The River
Bank Run, which has been taking place since 1977, is one of the most
important 25 km road races in the world.
The West Michigan
Whitecaps baseball team, a farm team of the Detroit Tigers, has played
in neighboring Comstock Park since 1994.
In 2015, the amateur
football club Grand Rapids FC started. The first season was played in
the Great Lakes Premier League, in 2016 "Die Blauen" switched to the
National Premier Soccer League. In the first season at the local
Houseman Field, more than 4,500 spectators attended on average.
sons and daughters of the town
Harry Spanjer (1873–1958), boxer,
Olympic champion
Charles Daniel White (1879–1955), Roman Catholic
Bishop of Spokane
Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884–1951), politician
Stanley Ketchel (1886–1910), boxer
Ford Beebe (1888–1978), director,
screenwriter and producer
Stephen Goosson (1889-1973), Oscar-winning
set designer
Frederick Henry Mueller (1893–1976), US Secretary of
Commerce
Jack Rice (1893–1968), actor
Leo Sowerby (1895–1968),
composer
John Herman Randall, Jr. (1899–1980), historian and
philosopher
Ward Silloway (1909–1965), jazz musician
Lew Douglas
(1912–1997), arranger, record producer and songwriter
T. L. Sherred
(1915–1985), science fiction writer
Lorna Gray, actually Virginia
Pound (1917-2017), actress
Richard DeVos (1926–2018), founder and
owner of Amway
Frank McCabe (1927–2021), basketball player
Edmund
Casimir Szoka (1927–2014), Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Detroit
Arno Marsh (1928–2019), jazz tenor saxophonist
Joseph Crescent
McKinney (1928–2010), Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Grand Rapids
Frederic N. Andre (1933–2014), lawyer and government official
Del
Shannon (1934–1990), singer
Roger B. Chaffee (1935–1967), astronaut
(Apollo 1)
Jack R. Lousma (born 1936), astronaut (Skylab 3, STS-3)
Stephen W. Bosworth (1939–2016), university dean and diplomat
Kurt
Luedtke (1939-2020), screenwriter and Oscar winner
George Andrie
(1940–2018), American football player
Max Apple (born 1941), novelist
and screenwriter
Ken Medema (born 1943), composer and singer
Leonard Schrader (1943–2006), author, film director and producer
Henry F. Schaefer (born 1944), chemist and university lecturer
Paul
Schrader (born 1946), screenwriter and film director
Marvin Wayne
Meyer (1948–2012), Coptic scientist
Chris Van Allsburg (born 1949),
illustrator and author (Jumanji, The Polar Express)
Jim Maki (born
1950), ski jumper
Fergie Frederiksen (1951–2014), singer, a.o. the
band Toto
Gregg F. Gunnell (1954–2017), primatologist and
paleontologist
Kim Zimmer (born 1955), actress
Scott Steed
(1957–2020), jazz musician
Tony Tucker (born 1958), boxer
Antonia
Franceschi (born 1960), ballet dancer, choreographer and actress
Carl
Paganelli (born 1960), NFL umpire
Roger Mayweather (1961–2020),
professional boxer and world boxing champion
Jon Casey (born 1962),
ice hockey goaltender
Anthony Kiedis (born 1962), co-founder,
lyricist and vocalist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Eric Allan Kramer
(born 1962), actor
Andy Richter (born 1966), entertainer
Stacy
Haiduk (born 1968), actress
James Toney (born 1968), boxer
Matt
Keeslar (born 1972), actor
Adina Howard (born 1974), singer
Marc
Miller (born 1975), racing driver
Floyd Mayweather Jr (b. 1977),
boxer
Justin Amash (born 1980), politician
Brian Mast (born 1980),
politician
Jason Hartmann (born 1981), long-distance runner
Chris
Kaman (born 1982), German basketball player
Dathan Ritzenhein (born
1982), long-distance runner
Kyle Visser (born 1985), basketball
player
Paul Walter Hauser (born 1986), film actor
Luke Glendening
(born 1989), ice hockey player
Taylor Lautner (born 1992), actor
Morgan Tuck (born 1994), basketball player
Devin Booker (born 1996),
basketball player
Gabriela Leon (born 1999), pole vaulter