Brutalist Architecture in Grand Rapids

Michigan Government building,
Grand Rapids

      If you’ve ever been to a government office, city hall, or other administrative building there’s a good chance you’ve experienced brutalist architecture. Created in the 1960’s as traditional architecture norms were being questioned, the term “brutalism” originates from the French term meaning “raw”. This building style often features exposed concrete, limited amounts of windows, and a cult-like focus on symmetry. Brutalism draws a lot of flak for what it represents: a removal of aesthetics from architecture and an emphasis on function, but regardless of public perception, brutalism is still a major architecture style and great examples can be seen right here in Grand Rapids.

Map of downtown Grand Rapids
(shaded portion indicates area
affected by 1960's urban renewal)

      

      “Out with the old and in with the new” seemed to be the rallying cry of Grand Rapids in the 1960’s as the city began urban renewal projects to “modernize” the downtown area. The area most affected by this process was north of Lyon Street, which, by no coincidence, is where you can find the highest concentration of brutalist architecture. The old city hall building, built in 1892, was demolished and replaced with surface parking on Ottawa Street. Factories and other businesses in the area were bulldozed and new city administrative offices replaced them.

Michigan State Government building, Grand Rapids

      

      A prime example of brutalism within this area is the Michigan State Government building at 385 Ottawa Street NE. Large and imposing, it looks like a table carved from a single block of stone. The immense scale and garish lack of windows seems to contribute to the “concrete jungle look” that many architects now avoid, but efforts to incorporate trees along Michigan Street has improved the street appeal.

Cook Hall, Grand Rapids

    

Gerald Ford Recreation
Center, Grand Rapids

                          Grand Rapids is home to many colleges, with a wide array of architecture seen on each campus. One college however embraced brutalism and dialed it up to eleven. Undergoing expansion in the seventies, Grand Rapids Community College built some of the city’s finest   examples of stone-cold minimalist architecture. Cook Hall, a five-story monolith of a building, stands at the corner of Lyon Street and Bostwick Avenue.  The Gerald Ford Recreation Center is nearby as well, and besides “The Legend of Grand Rapids”, a sixty-foot long marble frieze spanning one side, there are no interruptions in the massive concrete walls of the building.

     

Library and Learning Commons, Grand Rapids

      A block south of the Ford Recreation Center is the Library and Learning Commons, a large building that seems to cling to the ground, with a low-hanging roof and tall concrete columns. Built in 1973, it exhibits many brutalist qualities, such as the cold, “no-nonsense” exterior and exposed concrete on the interior stairways. As uninviting as it seems, it offers many pleasant qualities however, such as skylights on the second floor and an incorporation of trees around the building.

Library and Learning Commons, Grand Rapids

      

      There is plenty of interesting architecture to be found in Grand Rapids, and the city’s history of urban development through the 1960’s and 1970’s makes it a perfect showcase of the shift towards brutalism that was happening at the time. Whether it’s positive or negative is still open to discussion, but one thing is for certain, Grand Rapids has an abundance of these buildings we can either scorn or admire.