August 17 PM - Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park - Small stuff

We left BWI about 30 minutes behind schedule and ran in to traffic on I-96 in Michigan so the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park  was the only major visit we had on Aug 17. 

Image number one is Ann and I with Fred and Lena Meijer (Meijer is a chain of groceries and gas stations in Michigan and some other States). Fred was the one interested in sculpture. Lena was the one interested in horticulture. They put their

interests together in this park. The Park is not owned by the Meijer estate. Instead is the property of the West Michigan Horticulture Society.



Image number 2 is in the Arid Garden. The Arid Garden is the creation of  Earl and Donnalee Holton who were friends of the Meijers. Also Earl was the President of the Company after Fred retired. Note how this image has both man made forms (the rock frame) and plants.

A good website to learn more about the park and get the park's own images is here. I'm going to try to do better providing hot links than I have on previous blogs of this type.








Image number 3 is also in the Arid Garden and it has an imagined stairway with the Giant Saguaro Cactus to the left and in the background and some barrel cactus in the front.

and if you click on the image you get a bigger version of the image.

Aug 17 pm - Meijer Gardens and Sculpture - Big Things

Perhaps the most impressive sculpture in the Gardens is a Bronze horse. This horse completes a project begun by Leonardo da Vinci back in 1482 when the Duke of Milan commissioned it. In 1977 a retired pilot took up the project and after his death others brought it to completion in 2001. There were two horses made from the mold. One is in Milan, Italy. The other in Grand Rapids here. The horse is 24' high. In the first image, M is holding up the horse's hoof.  The horse statue is near the ones of Fred and Lena (as in the previous post on this blog).

This sculpture has an article in Wikipedia.

The second image is called the neuron. It was installed in the park in 2011. It stands 41 feet high and is made of stainless steel.The sculptor is Roxy  Paine. Mr. Paine is a New Yorker who has work featured in museums and other institutions in Europe, the US, Canada and Israel.

The third image is of a man made waterfall seen through a man made cliff. There a numerous waterfalls in the 130 + acres. One is set up to be the backdrop for weddings, others feed into gardens. The Meijer garden/sculpture garden usually shows up in the 50 best attractions in the world. It is almost certainly the finest such place in the Western Hemisphere (Holland has one, the Kroller-Muller Museum and Sculpture Park that is generally considered to be better but the Meijer is still expanding and will be adding a Japanese garden in 2015 and may eventually outrank the Kroller).

August 17 drive thourgh of Heritage Hill

After the Sculpture Garden and before we left Grand Rapids for the day, we drove through Heritage Hill in Grand Rapids (there are several other Heritage Hills around the country including one in Alexandria, VA). 

There are many large houses built from 1870-1930 by the wealthy of that era. The houses were all built to personal taste and many styles were used. The house in the image, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and uses Colonial Revival (the general layout and vertical elements), Greek Revival (the columned porch) and Italianate (the decorative roofs). I didn't take any pictures since I was driving and we didn't spend much time on this.

August 17 late pm In Holland, MI

We drove south west toward Lake Michigan from Grand Rapids and arrived in Holland, MI.

Holland is a small town and has an upscale shopping district. Within the shopping district, there was an Irish Pub and we had some drinks while looking at the statue that is the first image.

This statue is of boy scouts raising an American Flag and the sculptor is George Lundeen. who calls it "Pledge of Allegiance"



The next image shows another statue scene in downtown Holland

This one is called the "Joy of Music" by the same sculptor. Mr Lundeen is from Nebraska but studied in NY and Paris and now has his studio in Loveland, CO.

After our drinks in downtown Holland, we drove out toward the Lake Michigan shore. This was along the shores of the Macatawa River, which widens sometimes to form Lake Macatawa. On the south shore of the River just a few hundred feet from Lake Michigan was a mansion near a sand dune. In the third image, Ann is looking at it.


Then we walked out to the beach. The 4th image shows sunset over Lake Michigan behind some swings .

Aug 18 - Dune Riding near Saugatuck

The next morning we went to Saugatuck.

The first image shows the vehicle we used to ride the Dunes of Saugatuck.

The dunes are a relatively recent geologic feature. The dunes were tree stabilized for many years but after the Chicago fire of 1871, most of the trees were cut to rebuild Chicago. The dunes became unstable and moved inland covering up many homes and businesses. The dunes did not stabilize until the 1960s when sand grass was used to cover them. A history of the dunes is here.

The second image shows Ann and me on top of one of the highest dunes. It is about 300' above the elevation of Lake Michigan. The Lake is in the background.



The same love of statuary that you can see in Grand Rapids and Hollard and Detroit is in the third image. It is a whimsical piece called the Maintenance Man. The driver of the dune buggy had a series of jokes about this. The Maintenance man likes sandwiches, his wife was named Sandy and he came from SanDeigo. 

The fourth image shows one of the curves the dune buggy negotiated on the way down from the top of the high sand dune plateau.

The fifth image shows a tree snake. We went under this fellow and I asked the driver to stop and back up to get a picture. Someone asked me 'why' and I said, "because the snake is so cute". 

Click on images for enlarged version.

August 18 early PM - at the Gerry Ford Presidential Museum

After Saugatuck we backtracked to Grand Rapids. The first image is of Ann just outside the front of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, MI. There is a nice modern fountain with multiple levels and multiple waterfalls.

The second image is of a statue of President Ford. It was installed on July 15, 2011, on the occasion of the funeral of Betty Ford.   

As one might expect there is a lot of memorabilia in the museum. One thing surprised me. I had known that Ford was a naval officer on an aircraft carrier in WWII. What I didn't know was that the carriers of that era, had flight decks made of wood. 





The third image, in the tradition of the Michigan whimsical statuary tradition is of Gerry Ford as a football player (he was a Center and Linebacker on the U of Michigan football team from 1932-1934). The statue has University of Michigan colors (Ford also played in the 1935 College All-Stars vs Chicago NFL team game). The statue was installed in 2003 on Gerry Ford's 90th birthday and he was there for the event. 

One of the interesting things about Gerry Ford is that he was adopted. His birth name was Leslie Lynch King. His mother married a man named Gerry Rudolff Ford and Leslie began calling himself "Gerry R. Ford" but didn't legally change his name until he was about to go to college (he respelled the middle name). The museum gave no information on this that I could see but I had sketchily known about it previously (and confirmed it through the Wikipedia site on Gerry Ford).

Another interesting factoid is that Ford had the shortest Presidency of anyone except Presidents who had been assassinated or otherwise died in office. Ford lived to be 93 and a half and is, as of this post, the longest lived of any US President (that was in the museum).  

August 18 Late PM in Ann Arbor

We stopped for a few beers at another Irish Pub. It was in Ann Arbor on South University Street. I took this picture there because I liked the Coca Cola garden on the top floor of a shop that was next door to a Hookah Lounge.

Across the street where this was taken was a safe sex shop and a Middle Earth gift shop.

Belle Isle State Park - August 19 am

Belle Isle State Park (formerly Belle Isle - recently the City leased it to the State of Michigan) was named in 1845 (it means 'beautiful Island' (other states also have a Belle Isle) and was given to the city of Detroit by Alexander Macomb. 


The island, which is in the Detroit River between Canada (to the right in the first image and, as many people in Detroit will tell you - Canada is to the south from Detroit - one of the few places in the US about which this may be accurately said) and the US was built per a design by Frederick Olmstead, one of the US's premier landscape artists although it was only partly completed to Olmstead's design.

One of highlights is a recently repaired (actually the repairs were completed only in May 2014) James Scott Memorial fountain. The second and third images are of the fountain. The fountain is in the lower part of the first image in the circle above the trapezoidal lake on the island.

James Scott was a colorful fellow with many enemies but no heirs and he gave a fortune to the City of Detroit for a fountain which would have to include his statue (in the second image you can see the dark bronze statue behind the fountain, assuming you click on it to enlarge it - its to the right of the lion on the right

and also an image from the web is included as the fourth image). The fountain was built in 1925 out of white Vermont marble.


The lower bowl has a diameter of over 500' and the center spray goes over 125' above the plaza. There are several dozen small fountains with various creatures both real and mythical.

The fountain is considered the best one in the Western Hemisphere (even better than the Bellagio Fountain in Las Vegas because of the sculpture) although some of the great Italian fountains (e.g., the Trevi Fountain and the Fountains at St Peter's in Rome, probably exceed it in fame and beauty.

August 19 and 20 Ruin and Ruin Art

We checked into the Saint Regis Hotel just before dark on August 18. On August 19, we got our rental car and headed toward Belle Isle. But before we got there, we saw some vivid images on the decay of Detroit. The first image is a former house on Mack Ave (an east - west street and connects most of East Detroit with downtown). This image is from the net here. The site also has lots of pictures of other decayed buildings.




A few days later we saw some homes (second and third image) that had been made into works of contemporary art. 



This was done by the Heidelberg Project (the homes are located on or near Heidelberg Street in East Detroit.The Heidelberg project has its own website here. It is actually somewhat famous and almost three decades in operation.

August 19 - Detroit Institute of Art mid day

We left Belle Isle and went to near downtown Detroit to the Institute of Arts (formerly the Detroit Art Museum). Pictures are not allowed in the museum if you use flash (and unless you use flash the image is worthless) so all these are from the internet.

The first image is an iron Buddha from 8th century Korea -- most Buddha heads are stone or plaster and an iron statue in the 8th century was quite unique.

The second and third image are from Rivera Court. The murals are 30' or so high and a hundred feet long and show scenes from the industrial peak of Detroit. The style of art is called "Industrial" or "Industrial - Mexican". The artist, Diego Rivera was particularly proud of it. The murals are frescoes (paint is applied to a wet plaster surface). The frescoes were done in the 1930s and they essentially say that Industry was the culture of Detroit at that time. Rivera, who was a communist at heart, put some subversive scene in his art (his depiction of bosses is very unflattering while he shows many workers as heroic).  The images are from the linked website.

Another area of the museum that is impressive is the Great Hall (4th image - I used a website from a news story of the possible sale of the museum per the city's bankruptcy). This area of the museum was redone and restored in 2013 or so.

I had some difficulty parking at the museum since the lots were closed - all they had was street parking with no more than 2 hours or in some cases one hour with fare machines that sometimes didn't work, so I ended up parallel parking about 4 times in 4 hours.

August 19 PM - Motown Museum

A highlight of our visit was the trip to the Motown Museum (the first image is Martin doing the walk with the Temptations). 

Again flash pictures were not permitted so I don't have anything from inside but they did have all 

kinds of vintage stuff (including an old candy machine and cigarette machine with 1970 prices).

Our tour group (about 15 people) got to pretend to record "My Girl" by the Temptations in the actual recording studio (second image - from internet)

August 20 at the Henry Ford Museum

Early on August 20 we saw the Heidelberg project (see earlier post) and then had our only meat meal of the trip in Oak Park at the JCC there.

Then we went to Dearborn to  The Henry Ford Museum. It is huge - about 12 acres under one roof.  One exhibit I thought interesting was the Presidential vehicles. The first image (images of the limos are from the linked website) is the Presidential vehicle used by Kennedy (although not the one he used in Dallas when he was shot).. 

The second image has the one used by F. Roosevelt.

The also had vehicles used by Presidents from T. Roosevelt to Reagan (both vehicle images were from the internet).

Of course they had dozens of vintage Ford (and other make) cars, buses, trucks, etc.

 They also had some airplanes (Ford made airplanes for a while). Ann is in front of a 1950s model (in the third image) which looks like a flying diner..

M is in front of a vehicle used to advertise hot dogs in the 4th image.

We also saw the IMAX movie 'Jerusalem' while at the Henry Ford Museum - for some reason there is an IMAX there. 


A surprise to me (Ann didn't find this exhibit) was the presence in the museum of the Dymaxion house. This was a design creation of Buckminster Fuller in 1930 (redesigned in 1945 and constructed a few years later - it also looks a bit like a diner - the 5th image is from the linked website). His goal was to create a house that could be produced on an assembly line (in parts so it could be shipped and assembled easily) with minimal wasted space (e.g., no halls connecting rooms), minimal utility space (all the heating/cooling/plumbing would be near the center) and minimal cleaning problems (no corners). Fuller never got financing for this (some minor Ford corporation research was involved). Dymaxion is a combination of Dynamic, Maximum and Tension. The house in the Ford museum is the only one ever made.

After the museum we went back to the Saint Regis and then went out and had some drinks with Chris and Donna Mann (I knew Chris from transportation research work).

August 21 - Some great Art Deco Buildings

 The Fisher Building was located quite near our hotel so we walked to it.

This building at one time housed the company that made bodies for automobiles (Fisher Body).

It was given outside cladding (image 1) with various types of marble, granite and other decorative stone. 

The interior contains a beautifully decorated vaulted ceiling with extensive designs. The top of the vault is over the third floor (the image shows the 3rd floor walkway).

The Fisher building is in Mid town Detroit, about three miles from the downtown area.

 The Guardian building which is in downtown Detroit is the other great Art Deco building (red one in the 3rd image) in the city. The Guardian has had financial institutions occupy its floors.

Its lobby also has an extensively decorated vaulted ceiling. 

In the fourth image, the ceiling ends with a map of Michigan. On it (not easily seen) are symbols of commerce, manufacturing, mining, etc.

The fifth image is the other end of the lobby of the Guardian building. It looks like some sort of religious shrine - I presume that was the 'inspiration' for the design. The design has led people to refer to the lobby and sometimes to the building itself as a "Temple of Finance". 

We visited both these places, the Fisher and the Guardian on August 21, but the images are from the internet as my camera doesn't do well with deep interiors like this. Actually no camera, whose product I've ever seen, really does justice to this kind of art.

August 21 - More statuary on the way to the Ren Cen

We parked near the Guardian Building (see previous post). Then we had a walk toward the Renaissance Center (Detroiters call it the Ren Cen).

The first impressive statue we saw (image 1) was the Spirit of Detroit. It is at the Detroit Municipal Building. It was completed in 1958. It is bronze. The globe symbolizes God, in the other hand (which you can't see) - is a symbol of the family. The sculptor was Marshall Fredericks (who also has some work displayed at the Detroit Institute of Art) who was born in Illinois and at the time of this post was living in Cleveland. It is 26' feet high and at the time it was installed, it was the largest bronze sculpture since the Renaissance (other bronze statutes in the State are now taller).


Eventually we came to Hart Plaza located on the shore of the Detroit River west of the Ren Cen. This is a large plaza completed in 1975 with room for a hundred thousand people.

Ann is standing in front of a sculpture called "Transcending". The funding for the work was from the UAW and AFL-CIO and is the work of an Michigander (David Barr) and an Italian (Sergio de Guisti) who was living in Michigan at the time. The work tops out at 63' and is made of steel. At night, a light joins the two loops. Around the loops are granite stones from New England. 

Going further toward the Ren Cen, we used the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk extends about 5.5 miles from Belle Isle to the Ambassador Bridge (which is in the center background of Image 3). The first 3 miles was completed in 2007 and the whole 5.5 miles were completed by 2012.

The image shows bicycling but most of the people who use the Riverwalk are pedestrians. In the image, Canada is on the left. On the right riverfront is a boat which is a cruise boat called "Detroit Princess". The riverwalk also has the Hart Plaza, Cobo Hall convention center and some other attractions along it.

Aug 21 - The REN CEN - from the outside and the atrium

We arrived at the Ren Cen (also called the GM RenCen and of course the Renaissance Center) in time for a noon tour (free of charge, it is funded by the General Motors Corporation and the vendors who sell stuff inside). The Ren Cen was built in 1977 by a financial partnership which included the Ford Corporation.


The first image is at the Detroit River side of the Ren Cen. The sign says "General Motors". Ann is on the left with others of our tour group.



The second image is taken at the same place as the first but with the camera angling up so you can see the top of the entrance facade and the middle tower. The middle tower is a Marriot and has 73 stories (with a bar and restaurant at the top), others contain executive offices of General Motors or research and engineering offices and are 39 stories tall. One tower contains some finance companies (including GM's finance corporation). 

The third image is taken from the window of the People Mover that we rode after leaving the Ren Cen.  It also shows the Detroit Princess (the boat) on the right in the Detroit River and the road that leads to the Detroit Tunnel which goes under the river to Windsor Canada which would be on the right out of the picture.


The fourth image (off the wikipedia site on the Ren Cen) shows the fountain that is next to the Riverwalk near the Ren Cen (which is in the background). The individual fountains (there are 100+) are usually at 1.5' high but every half hour they go to 6' for about a minute or so.

The 5th image shows the atrium (also from the previous linked website) which is what you see when you enter via the Riverwalk entrance.

There are restaurants, clothes stores, an exercise club, a jazz club, etc. on the various levels. The palm trees were placed there in 2002 (the rest of the atrium was completed in 2001). the palm trees are not alive (they are 'em plamed' according to the tour guide).

Final two posts are on page 2 so click on the 'older posts' link in the bottom right below this post.