Ray and Charles EamesThe studio of Charles and Ray Eames has a long history in our region and is one that is still be felt today via the partnerships they created around the world.Īnd while almost every furniture manufacturer in our city has a connection to a designer or artist these days, it was the level of play that the Eames wove into their workflow that sparked not just a movement in design but infused in our world a powerful energy based on the possibilities of life.
In just 10 years we have not just witnessed a transformation of a city once considered a fly-over speck on the map to a place that people consider when seeking employment, but also as travel destination where the pleasures of beer tourism to some of the world’s best sandy beaches to even a giant outdoor inflatable cinema program held each summer on the banks of a soon-to-be redeveloped river bank are up for grabs on a nearly seven-days-a-week schedule of events.Įven our neighborhoods have become a hot topic for a host of reasons that show no sign of slowing down. To this day, Rapid Growth has subscribers from all over the world who want to keep tabs as to what we are creating here. Fiber optic points of light in the amphitheater floor mark the constellations over Grand Rapids as we entered the third millennium January 1, 2000.” Inscribed on the monument’s plaque, the Frey Foundation (the funder) has written, “Its elements were inspired by water as vapor, liquid and solid embodied in a mist fountain, a tablet of flowing water and an ice rink.
In fact, Ecliptic, renamed Rosa Parks Circle by the city, reflects the path of time and is told via the journey of our sun passing through the sky above us. In those first years we shared stories of future developments of old buildings long abandoned, a hush-hush arts event later revealed by us to be ArtPrize, a Cool City project emerging on Division Avenue, and development updates on a new Grand Rapids Art Museum to be built next to the transplanted heart of downtown’s latest public art piece, Ecliptic, designed by Maya Lin. Those early articles helped groups of people better connect with their city through articles on our local bookies, emerging coffee shops, beloved neighborhood butchers, and we even introduced you to Frances the Dogwalker.Īs more and more folks moved here, and often shared that Rapid Growth played a role in their selection of our city as their new hometown, it became clear that our readership has always been folks intrigued by what is happening here. It is a nice cross section to consider, as all three factors showcase, in their own way, the health of a city. In those days, the themes that ran through Rapid Growth focused on three main areas: the city from the perspective of a citizen, an investor and a visitor. It is hard to imagine how quickly things have accelerated in our region since we published our first issue.Ĭall it the curse of having 20/20 hindsight vision, but with no road map before us, we did what any early frontiersperson would have done - we set out to tell the stories of our lives as they were happening. Looking back, I can see how Rapid Growth filled a void in the media during a time when telling the stories we did were not in vogue, as they are today.Īs I re-read articles from those early days, I became a bit nostalgic for the wild frontier we were 10 years ago. Over our holiday break, I spent a fair amount of time reflecting on what it means to be in publishing for 10 years and what we have witnessed, or covered, during a period of tremendous growth in our region. What brought me to this moment of reflection was not that I’m fixated on the upcoming 2020 decade but that Rapid Growth will be celebrating a momentous milestone in 2016.
#Power of ten film full
We can be grateful that events like World War II did not traverse across a full decade for the United States, and yet, with some items in our culture, like “The Simpsons,” The Rolling Stones, and even cake (the food … and in all its forms), we are all too happy to watch them command our attention, defying the odds of being neatly placed in any one decade. These best-of-the-decade packages do make for fun parties when we gather at a local club, donning a stereotypical characterization costume and dance to the music of this time period, but those who study history know that trends, just like world events, rarely respect such borders of time. To be frank, I've never been a fan of assigning an entire decade’s worth of events to a neatly arranged 10-year bookend.
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