Grand Rapids Achieves Emerging 2030 District Designation in Effort to Reduce Energy Use in Downtown

Posted on Categories Environment

2030Private, public partnership working toward final designation from Architecture 2030 by end of year

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell today announced Grand Rapids has been named an Emerging 2030 District by Architecture 2030, an effort designed to reduce energy use in the downtown, and putting it on track to become an Established 2030 District this year. The energy district was among the goals unveiled in the mayor’s 2015 State of the City address.

“Cities continue to play an important role in addressing the root causes of climate change, and here in Grand Rapids we do that in partnership with our private sector partners” said Heartwell. “To help reach our goal of becoming a more resilient community we have taken up the Green District 2030 Challenge and are meeting it head on.”

Joining Mayor Heartwell for the announcement was Architecture 2030 Founder Ed Mazria and Dan Scripps, president of the Institute for Energy Innovation that is collaborating with the city on the energy district. Other partners involved in facilitating the development of the Grand Rapids 2030 District include the U.S. Green Building Council – West Michigan Chapter, and the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum.

Initiated in Seattle, 2030 Districts are unique private/public partnerships that bring together property owners and managers with local governments, businesses, and community stakeholders through a common goal of reducing energy use, water use, and transportation emissions in urban settings. 2030 District participants work to meet the energy, water and vehicle emissions reduction targets called for by Architecture 2030 in its ‘2030 Challenge for Planning.’ To date, nine North American cities have established 2030 Districts, including Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto, and Stamford (Connecticut.)

“With cities accounting for 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it’s critical that cities are also in the forefront of developing solutions,” Mazria said. “Led by the private sector and building on strong local sustainability leadership, it’s exciting to welcome Grand Rapids to the 2030 District Network as an Emerging 2030 District.”

Putting in place a Grand Rapids Emerging 2030 District Exploratory Committee was critical to the process. It includes a number of participating developers, building owners and operators, and other stakeholders, among them:

  • 616 Development
  • Bazzani Building Company
  • Catalyst Partners
  • City of Grand Rapids
  • Consumers Energy
  • Grand Rapids Art Museum
  • Grand Rapids Public Schools
  • Grand Valley State University
  • Kent County Department of Public Works
  • Integrated Architecture
  • Midwest Energy Group
  • Progressive AE
  • Rockford Construction
  • SMG, which manages DeVos Place and Van Andel Arena
  • Spectrum Health
  • Sustainable Research Group
  • Van Andel Institute
  • Veolia Energy

“Today’s announcement shows the progress being made by our private sector partners in establishing a 2030 District in downtown Grand Rapids,” said Scripps. “Our city is known for its private sector leadership in sustainability efforts, and the work to create a 2030 District builds on that leadership.

“Creating a 2030 District in Grand Rapids will help maintain our community’s position among the leaders across the country, as well as helping building owners and operators to reduce energy and water costs and create more comfortable, more profitable buildings,” Scripps added.

An Established 2030 District designation brings with it several advantages over and above adding to the city’s overall goal of becoming a sustainable city. These include shared expertise, bulk purchasing arrangements, technical assistance, and opportunities to save money through reductions in energy and water use.

Participating building owners and operators in 2030 Districts agree to adopt the following targets:

  • For existing buildings, a 50 percent reduction in energy use across the district by 2030 compared to a 2003 national benchmark of similar buildings, as well as 50 percent reductions in water use and emissions from transportation.
  • For new buildings and major renovations, an immediate reduction in building energy use by 50 percent compared to the 2003 national benchmark, with additional targets getting to net-zero energy use by 2030. New buildings also seek to immediately reduce their water use and transportation emissions by 50 percent when compared to the current district average.

Now that Grand Rapids has achieved the Emerging District designation, the city will be focused on the final phase of becoming an Established 2030 District, which requires the following:

  • A private sector led Advisory or Leadership Board/Committee made up of 40 percent property owners, managers, and developers; 20 percent professional stakeholders; and 20 percent community stakeholders.
  • Signed commitments/pledge letters from at least five building owners/managers.
  • A mission aligned with 2030 District goals.
  • Set targets for energy, water and vehicle emissions reductions that meet or exceed the 2030 Challenge for planning targets.
  • Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and a financial management system.
  • Shared key information with Architecture 2030 staff.
  • Signed the 2030 District Charter with Architecture 2030.

Additional information on 2030 Districts and the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Planning is available 2030districts.org and Architecture 2030

Contact: Liz Boyd
Telephone: 517.881.6713

# # #

The Institute for Energy Innovation (IEI) is a Michigan-based non-profit corporation. IEI’s mission is to promote greater public understanding of advanced energy and its economic potential for Michigan, and to inform the public and policy discussion on Michigan’s energy challenges and opportunities. IEI’s activities focus on three primary activities: policy development and research; community energy initiatives; and industry engagement.

The West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is a regional network of businesses, institutions, and individuals dedicated to promoting business practices that demonstrate environmental stewardship, economic vitality, and social responsibility. Founded in 1994, it is today the leading membership organization for practitioners of beyond‐compliance sustainability practices in the state and an active facilitator of participatory community sustainability initiatives, promoting positive change and operational improvements through education and collaboration.

The U.S. Green Building Council is a committee-based, member-driven, consensus-focused non-profit founded in 1993 that currently represents over 17,000 companies and organizations. The USGBC West Michigan Chapter, organized in 2004, is one of 70 chapters that operate as licensed separate non-profits across the United States. The U.S. Green Building Council mission is it to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life in one generation. It accomplishes that mission with a dedication to expanding green building practices and education with its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ and other educational resources.

Catalyst Radio: Architecture environmentalist Mazria is keynote for Wege Speaker Series

Posted on Categories Environment, Wege Speaker Series
wycelogoby Catalyst Radio (Catalyst Radio) on Friday Apr 3rd, 2015 12:30pm in NEWS
in collaboration with Linda Gellasch and WYCE Radio 88.1 FM

 

This year’s Wege Speaker Series is the 19th annual environmental lecture event, beginning April 23 at Aquinas Performing Arts Center.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

In this episode of Catalyst Radio we feature an interview with the keynote speaker of the upcoming annual Wege environmental lecture series, Edward Mazria. Mazria is the founder of Architecture 2030 – a nonprofit research organization with a stated goal to “transform the building environment from being a major contributor of greannhouse gas emission, to being a central part of the solution to the climate and energy crises.”

Edward Mazria will be in Grand Rapids April 23 at Aquinas College Performing Arts Center, presenting his talk, “The Road to Zero.”

Every spring since 1997, the Wege Foundation has invited scientists, authors and thinkers to present a free public lecture on environmental issues and their connection to healthy economies and communities — a connection referred to by Peter M. Wege as “Economicology.” This is the first speaker series since the passing of Wege Foundation founder Peter Wege in 2014. Some previous have been Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chief Prosecuting Attorney, Riverkeeper; Tom Kiernan, CEO, American Wind Energy Association; and Dr. Marie Lynn Miranda, Dean University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.

We talk with Wege series keynote speaker Edward Mazria, via telephone.

Wege Prize 2015 – Results

Posted on Categories Education, Environment

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Elena Tislerics
Coordinator, Wege Prize
Chief Communications Officer, Kendall College of Art and Design
elena@wegeprize.org 

$30,000 awarded in wicked problem solving competition

Winners of Wege Prize 2015 announced; 2016 international competition launched

1st place team Western Sustainers earns $15,000 for designing agricultural system that
upcycles waste and acts in symbiosis with the surrounding community

Grand Rapids, Mich. March 31, 2015 – Assembling in-person for the first time since forming teams in January, undergraduate competitors from the three transdisciplinary finalist teams in Wege Prize 2015 presented their solutions to the wicked problem of creating a circular economy. The winners were named on March 28 at the second annual Wege Prize Awards, where the teams presented their innovative solutions to five internationally-known judges, as well as public and online audiences.

This year’s competition again challenged teams of five to revolutionize the world’s linear economic models into ones which are regenerative by designing a product, service, or business model that could function within and help create a circular economy – a model in which resources can be re-adapted for use without limiting the desirability of products or the flow of revenue. Now in its second year, Wege Prize was held on a national level, and teams were again required to represent at least two different academic institutions and at least three different academic disciplines.

Winners:

wmu  1st place – $15,000
Team name: Western Sustainers

Cara Givens, Biomedical Sciences, Western Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences
Elijah Lowry, Geography, Western Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences
Kelsey Pitschel, Mechanical Engineering, Western Michigan University College of Engineering
Max Hornick, Public Relations, Western Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences
Ramon Roberts-Perazza, Civil Engineering, Western Michigan University College of Engineering

Solution: Local Loop Farm – This agricultural system is designed to act in symbiosis with its surrounding community, utilizing hot composting, hydroponics, and other innovative technologies to produce fresh, healthy, local, and affordable ­fish and vegetables while upcycling waste and eliminating many of the negative impacts associated with existing food production and consumption.

“Impressive research and analysis by this team, and in speaking with them afterward we were excited to hear that plans are underway to implement their project.” – Judge Ellen Satterlee

 

2nd2nd place – $10,000
Team name: Pixelation

Alexandra Vasquez Dheming, Production Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Karla Ronaszegi, Industrial Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Lynae Brooks, Architecture, Savannah College of Art and Design
Ryan Parrish, Industrial Design, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University
Taina Fuzaro Bercho, Industrial Design, Savannah College of Art and Design

Solution: No Waste Delivery (NOW) – this food delivery service is designed to change the food consumption and purchasing norms of the urban office worker by reducing packaging waste, food waste, and delivery service fuel emissions.

“We really appreciated the research that Pixelation did in terms of what solutions already exist, both in the US and abroad, and that they attempted to establish circular flows of resources where existing food delivery services hadn’t.” – Judge Gretchen Hooker

 

3rd3rd place – $5,000
Team name: The Originals

Christa Iscoa, Architecture, Savannah College of Art and Design
John Worthley, Energy Engineering, Penn State University
Laryssa Tertuliano, Industrial Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Marina Busato, Industrial Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Philip Han, Collaborative Design, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University

Solution: Organikos – this service, which combines an energy efficient in-home composting appliance with a user experience-driven web platform, is designed to remove the barriers that make composting difficult and inaccessible.

“What impressed us the most about The Original’s solution was that it didn’t attempt to do everything on it’s own, but rather identified possible collaborations with existing services that could help it succeed. That kind of systemic thinking is exactly what students should be engaging in.” – Judge Nathan Shedroff

Evaluating each team on factors such as research, innovation, and feasibility, judge Colin Webster remarked, “We were all impressed by the enormous amount of time, energy, and research the teams put into their projects, but Western Sustainers’ depth of research and systemic understanding of the solution they’d designed was what ultimately set them apart,” said Colin Webster, Wege Prize judge and Education Programme Manager with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a UK-based organization that’s a global leader in circular economic thought, education, and development. “In all the teams, there was a real willingness to collaborate and engage with very complex concepts and ideas, and most importantly, each showed a desire to improve their solutions beyond this competition and to continue to refine their understanding of the circular economy.”

Judges:
Colin Webster – Education Programme Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Michael Werner – Green Chemistry and Restricted Substances Manager, Apple Inc.
Gretchen Hooker – Biomimicry Specialist, Biomimicry Institute
Nathan Shedroff – Program Chair, MBA in Design Strategy, California College of the Arts
Ellen Satterlee – CEO, Wege Foundation

Wege Prize 2016 Goes International, Starts Now

All five judges will return for Wege Prize 2016, which is moving to an international level. Next year’s competition will be open to undergraduate students anywhere in the world. Those interested in participating are encouraged to begin networking and connecting with possible mentors and teammates now. More information about Wege Prize 2016 will be revealed in the coming weeks on wegeprize.org.

“We want to thank our esteemed judges and all of the brave, bold, and passionate students who rose to this year’s challenge, and we look forward to the new connections, collaborations, and ideas that will emerge as we transition to an international level,” said Wege Prize organizer Gayle DeBruyn. “The sooner students begin making connections, finding mentors, and brainstorming possible solutions, the better, because Wege Prize 2016 starts right now.”

About Wege Prize:

Wege Prize, a West Michigan-born concept and collaboration between Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) and The Wege Foundation, is a collaborative design competition that gives teams of college students the chance to work across disciplines, use design thinking principles, and contend for $30,000 in total cash prizes, all while helping to show the world what the future of problem solving looks like. The challenge is to design a product, service, or business model that can function within and help create a paradigm shift towards a circular economic model. To learn more, go to wegeprize.org.

About The Wege Foundation:

The Wege Foundation focuses on local good works that enhance the lives of the people and preserve the health of the environment. The five branches of our Mission are, in rank order: Education, Environment, Arts and Culture, Health Care, and Human Services. For more information, please visit wegefoundation.com.

About KCAD:

Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) is committed to creating lasting impact in West Michigan and beyond through collaborative partnerships, cultural innovation, and an educational model that develops the talent of individuals into a force for intellectual growth, individual creativity, and community engagement. For more information, please visit kcad.edu.

 

WMU student team wins national Wege sustainability prize

Posted on Categories Education, Environment

Signature-Stacked-chenille
by Cheryl Roland

Click here to read article  on WMU’s website

March 30, 2015 | WMU News

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A team of five Western Michigan University students has won the 2015 Wege Prize, besting teams from around the nation in the eyes of an international panel of judges whose task was to assess the teams’ ability to use design principles to tackle sustainability problems.

The WMU team captured first place and a $15,000 award March 28 in an event the Grand Rapids-based Wege Foundation calls a “gathering of the brightest collegiate minds in America to solve a truly wicked problem.” The second annual transdisciplinary design contest asked teams of five to work collaboratively across institutional and disciplinary boundaries to create a circular economy—a tightly looped, restorative economic cycle where resources can be re-adapted for use without limiting the desirability of products or the loss of revenue.

WMU’s team competed under the name Western Sustainers.

The WMU team

  • Max Hornick, public relations major from Kalamazoo.
  • Ramon Roberts-Perazza, a civil engineering major from Detroit.
  • Kelsey Pitschel, a mechanical engineering major from Hartland.
  • Elijah Lowry, a geography and environmental and sustainability studies major from Dearborn.
  • Cara Givens, a biomedical science major from Detroit.

The WMU team designed The Local Loop Farm, an agricultural system that exists symbiotically with the surrounding community, using complementary systems to increase economic, environmental and biological effectiveness. Building on research done by WMU’s Office of Sustainability, the team used current technology for its design, including hydroponic grow beds, fish cultivation and hot composting. The increased efficiencies achieved allow for the production of fresh, healthy fish and vegetables that are affordable to the community and eliminate many of the negative effects associated with current food production and consumption.

The Western Sustainers were advised by two recent WMU grads Kyle Simpson from Novi andCarlos Daniels from Detroit, as well as Josh Shultz, who is the permaculture coordinator in the Office of Sustainability. The WMU team’s design presentation can be viewed atwegeprize.org/western-sustainers.

About the competition

The 2015 competition featured 13 teams of five students, representing a total of 12 different colleges and universities and 45 academic disciplines. Five international sustainability and design professionals returned as judges. In addition to WMU, participating colleges and universities included: Alma College, George Washington University, University of California Berkeley, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University (four teams), Kendall School of Art and Design, Hope College, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Savannah College of Art and Design and Pennsylvania State University.

Second place went to a team from Kendall and Savannah College. Third place was awarded to a team made up of students from Savannah College, Kendall and Penn State.

Judges for the competition were:

  • Colin Webster, education programme manager for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Endinburgh, United Kingdom.
  • Gretchen Hooker, biomimicry specialist with Kalamazoo’s Biomimicry Institute.
  • Nathan Shedroff, program chair for MBA programs at the California College of Arts.
  • Ellen Satterlee, executive director of the Wege Foundation.
  • Michael Werner, green chemistry and restricted substances manger for Apple.

The Wege Foundation focuses on local good works that enhance the lives of people and preserve the health of the environment. The five branches of its mission are education, environment, arts and culture, health care and human services.

For more information, visit wegefoundation.com.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.

Pictured above:
Front row: Elijah Lowry, Max Hornick, Kelsey Pitschel, Carlos Daniels. Back row: Kyle Simpson, Ramon Roberts-Perazza, Josh Shultz.

LOVE THE PLANET WITH A FREE PHONE APP

Posted on Categories Education, Environment, Wege Speaker Series

Louie Schwartzberg, an internationally recognized time-lapse photographer of nature, doesn’t like the fact that the average age of visitors to national parks is 57. No wonder, since Schwartzberg’s mission is nothing less than “the future of the planet.” And if it’s to be protected, he needs young people to do it. Louie’s plan of attack is to meet the next generations where they live. On their cell phones.

Click here for links to the app

So Schwartzberg has created a free phone app called “Moving Art” loaded with his spelling-binding photography—time lapses that become video. Bees pollinating flowers. Bats eating cactus flowers. Monarchs gathering in Mexico. All free with a click on the app. Scwartzberg told a full-house crowd at the March Wege Lecture in Meijer Gardens, “We protect what we love.” And the stunning visuals his cameras have captured on film are intended “to make you fall in love” with Mother Nature. His “Moving Art” app is how he hopes young people will “fall in love” with the planet they need to take care of.

For 35 years this Wege speaker has kept his cameras running 24/7 year around. And out of all those gazillion photographs, he has twelve hours of films. The films he featured at Meijer Gardens were about “The Hidden Beauty of Pollination.” As his audience sat mesmerized by the images of bees scattering pollen dust, Schwartzberg told them that “pollination is the source of life…we wouldn’t be here without flowers…one-third of the food we eat depends on them.”

Louie Schwartzberg’s inspiring presentation is exactly why the late Peter Wege set up these talks at his friend Fred Meijer’s botanical gardens. The Wege Foundation’s original logo asks the question, “Is the Planet Worth Saving?” Louie Schwartzberg is devoting his professional life to helping the world, especially young people, answer with a collective, “Yes!”

ARCHITECT EDWARD MAZRIA TO BE KEY SPEAKER FOR 19TH ANNUAL WEGE SPEAKER SERIES ON THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015

Posted on Categories Education, Environment, Wege Speaker Series

Architect and founder of Architecture 2030 to talk about developing architecture districts that serve as a business model for urban sustainability

The Wege Foundation will host the 19th Wege Speaker Series on Thursday,  April 23 at 4pm at the Aquinas College Performing Arts Center. It is the first speaker series event since the passing of Wege Foundation founder Peter Wege in 2014.

At this year’s event, the key speaker is Edward Mazria, founder and head of Architecture 2030, an organization designed to rapidly transform the built environment from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate and energy crises. His talk is titled, “The Road to Zero.”

“Peter Wege’s decades-long leadership in promoting green buildings makes Mr. Mazria the perfect choice to deliver the 2015 Wege Lecture and to inspire Grand Rapids to continue Mr. Wege’s Economicology legacy,” said Ellen Satterlee, CEO of the Wege Foundation. Mazria will powerfully illustrate a core principle of Economicology, that creating a healthy environment generates a prosperous economy.

Mazria is an internationally recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator. Over the past decade, his seminal research of the built environment has redefined the role of architecture, planning, design and building in reshaping our world to create access to no cost/low cost renewable energy.

Of particular interest in Grand Rapids are 2030 Districts, an initiative of Architecture 2030. These unique private/public partnerships bring property owners and managers together with local governments, businesses and community stakeholders to provide a business model for urban sustainability. Established in Seattle, 2030 districts in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Denver, Stamford, San Francisco, and Dallas comprise over 180 million square feet of real estate. New 2030 Districts are currently forming in cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Joining Mazria will be Vincent Martinez, Director of Research and Operations, Architecture 2030.

Partners for the 19th Wege Speaker Series event include:

  • Institute for Energy Innovation
  • West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
  • US Green Building Council West Michigan Chapter
  • AIA Grand Rapids
  • West Michigan Environmental Action Council
  • West Michigan Environmental Leadership Network
  • City of Grand Rapids’ Office of Energy and Sustainability
  • GRPS City High-Middle School
  • GRPS Center for Economicology

The Aquinas College Performing Arts Center is located at 1703 Robinson Road S.E. in Grand Rapids. The public is invited and the event is free. Registration is required at www.aquinas.edu/wegespeaker

Edward Mazria BIO:

Portrait of Ed Mazria, Architecture2030

Edward Mazria, FAIA, Hon. FRAIC
Founder and CEO, Architecture 2030

Edward Mazria is an internationally recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator. Over the past decade, his seminal research into the sustainability, resilience, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions of the built environment has redefined the role of architecture, planning, design, and building, in reshaping our world. He is the founder of Architecture 2030, a think tank developing real-world solutions for 21st century problems.

Mazria issued the 2030 Challenge, and recently introduced the 2030 Palette, a revolutionary new platform that puts the principles behind low-carbon/zero carbon and resilient built environments at the fingertips of architects, planners, and designers worldwide. This past year he issued the Roadmap to Zero Emissions at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) calling zero emissions in the built environment by 2050; and the 2050 Imperative that has been adopted by professional organizations representing over 1.3 million architects in 124 countries worldwide. And recently, he developed The Urban Climate Initiative, a framework of incremental actions that governments can put in place to ensure carbon neutral built environments by the year 2050.

Mr. Mazria’s awards include AIA Design Awards, American Planning Association Award, Department of Energy Awards, American Solar Energy Society Pioneer Award, Equinox Award, National Conservation Achievement Award, Mumford Award from Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, inaugural Hanley Award, Distinguished Career Award from Pratt Institute, Zia Award from the University of New Mexico, Game Changers Award from Metropolis Magazine, 2011 Purpose Prize, and the 2015 Kemper Award from the American Institute of Architects. He is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council, Honorary Fellow of the RAIC, and received an Honorary Doctor of Architecture degree from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mary Free Bed: 1891-2015

Posted on Categories Health Care

What could be Grand Rapids’ first fund-raiser was a bright idea a small group of women called the Union Benevolent Association came up with in 1891 to pay the ten cents a day it cost for one bed in the UBA hospital, forerunner of Blodgett. Since Mary was then the most common woman’s name, these visionary marketers asked the community for dime donations to honor someone named Mary. The newspaper quoted their request, Any man, woman or child who has now, or has ever had, a dear one with that name is asked to give. The dimes rolled in. From then on, there was always one free hospital bed available for someone sick, but too poor to pay.

Fast forward twenty years when these pioneering women realized how important their little fundraiser had become. In 1911 they formed themselves into an official entity and stuck to their origins by naming themselves the Mary Free Bed Guild. How proud these early activists would be knowing their mission of caring for the sick had been carried on for over a century by strong, independent women like themselves who continue to govern the hospital as the Mary Free Bed Guild.

The culmination of that early ten-cent campaign is now a $42 million, six-story addition that will add 190,000 square feet to the existing 115,000 square-foot building all named for that first fund drive. Mary Free Bed Hospital is now the fifth largest rehabilitation hospital in the nation. With the feel of a luxury hotel, the large, colorful private rooms bring the outdoors in with wall murals of Michigan, feature a flat-screen TV, and have sleeper couches that turn into double beds for family members.

Eight gymnasiums. Computerized prosthetic limbs. Walkable hallways using ceiling mounted harnesses. A rooftop terrace, chapel, solarium with a two-sided fireplace. And, most important, Mary Free Bed’s highly skilled staff, specialists in rehabilitating injured bodies and brains, are devoted to returning patients to functioning lives as fast and as happily as possible. All this started by asking for a dime.

Terri McCarthy, Vice President of Programs for The Wege Foundation, and Jane and Phil Godspeed at the ribbon-cutting for Mary Free Bed Hospital’s new addition. The Wege Foundation was a major donor to the $42 million, six-story building more than doubling the size of the current MFB Hospital.
Terri McCarthy, Vice President of Programs for The Wege Foundation, and Jane and Phil Godspeed at the ribbon-cutting for Mary Free Bed Hospital’s new addition. The Wege Foundation was a major donor to the $42 million, six-story building more than doubling the size of the current MFB Hospital.
Patrick Logan, VP of Orthotics & Prosthetics, holds up one of Mary Free Bed’s more colorful prosthetic legs with the feet that spring up for running.
Patrick Logan, VP of Orthotics & Prosthetics, holds up one of Mary Free Bed’s more colorful prosthetic legs with the feet that spring up for running.
This bright-eyed, mobile model demonstrates some of the extensive prosthetics that Mary Free Bed provides their patients being rehabilitated with injuries from head to toe.
This bright-eyed, mobile model demonstrates some of the extensive prosthetics that Mary Free Bed provides their patients being rehabilitated with injuries from head to toe.

 

The Wonder of Water…”Until it’s gone.” At the GRAM

Posted on Categories Arts & Culture, Environment

Edward Burtynsky is an environmental warrior whose artistic weapon is a camera. For over 30 years, the Canadian artist has turned aerial photography—via planes, helicopters, and drones—into a graphic history of what we Homo sapiens are doing to our Earth home. His airborne cameras have photographed quarries, oil drillers, and mines, among other things, documenting man’s physical destruction of our most vital natural resource.

From now until April 26, two floors of the Grand Rapids Art Museum are filled with sixty of Burtynsky’s large-scale photographs in a powerfully designed exhibit. As one viewer put it, “I went through the entire exhibit and was fascinated, stunned, and impressed with the solemn message his artwork showed us.”

The title of Burtynsky’s show at the GRAM is Water, and his message is gripping. “Water,” he writes, “is the reason we can say its name.” The late Peter M. Wege, founder of The Wege Foundation, the Presenting Sponsor of the exhibit, said the same thing in his book ECONOMICOLOGY. “We can live without a lot of things,” Wege wrote. “Water isn’t one of them.”

Some of Burtynsky’s aerial photographs, such as a Geothermal Power Station in Mexico and Dryland Farming in Spain, have an abstract beauty despite the artist’s deadly serious message. The epiphany that led to this GRAM exhibit happened seven eight years ago when a photojournalist friend told Burtynsky about an incident that happened in an Australian bar. After his friend had paid for his beer and was leaving, the bartender ran after him and said he had to finish his glass of water before he could go.

“Suddenly, Burtynsky writes, “water took on a new meaning for me. I realized water, unlike oil, is not optional. Without it we perish.”

That revelation led to Burtynsky’s spending five years circling the globe in the sky focusing his mission and his lens on recording mankind’s misuse of water. West Michigan viewers surrounded by the five Great Lakes holding 21% of the world’s fresh water might shudder at the photographs of the Colorado River Delta ironically named as it’s been a sand lot since the River was diverted over 40 years ago. And then there’s Owens Lake, a desert since its water was siphoned off for Los Angeles in 1913.

Because of man’s technical ability to control the world’s water, Edward Burtynsky writes, “We are reshaping the Earth in ways …capable of engineering our own demise.” The artist hopes this GRAM exhibit will make viewers “think more long-term about the consequences of what we are doing.” And if we don’t pay attention, we will continue to take the water that sustains us for granted. “Until it’s gone,” Burtynsky somberly concludes.

Click here for Exhibit details

Celebrating the successful opening of artist-photographer Edward Burtynsky’s “Water” exhibit at the GRAM February 1 are the artist Burtynsky in back next to GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Fris-Hansen. In front are major sponsors of “Water,” from the left Mitch and Karen Padnos and Carol Sarosik and Shelley Padnos.
Celebrating the successful opening of artist-photographer Edward Burtynsky’s “Water” exhibit at the GRAM February 1 are the artist Burtynsky in back next to GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Fris-Hansen. In front are major sponsors of “Water,” from the left Mitch and Karen Padnos and Carol Sarosik and Shelley Padnos.
Wege Foundation Board member Mary Wege Nelson and her husband Jim are shown with Judy Adams, Mary’s former roommate at Northwestern, who came in from Chicago for the Grand Rapids Art Museum's opening of the “Water” exhibit by Edward Burtynsky. The Wege Foundation was the Presenting Sponsor of the artist’s sixty large aerial photographs of water depletions around the globe.
Wege Foundation Board member Mary Wege Nelson and her husband Jim are shown with Judy Adams, Mary’s former roommate at Northwestern, who came in from Chicago for the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s opening of the “Water” exhibit by Edward Burtynsky. The Wege Foundation was the Presenting Sponsor of the artist’s sixty large aerial photographs of water depletions around the globe.

Wege Talk at Meijer Gardens Will Entertain and Educate

Posted on Categories Arts & Culture, Education, Environment

The personal friendship between Peter Wege and Fred Meijer resulted in many good works for West Michigan, including Meijer Gardens as Peter was one of the earliest benefactors. The picture here shows the two friends standing in a field that is now the home of Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.

One of Peter’s and The Wege Foundation’s gifts to the Gardens was an endowment fund to bring in nationally recognized environmentalists to deliver the Wege Lecture. This year on Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. videographer Louie Schwartzberg will share footage from his prize-winning film—narrated by Meryl Streep—Wings of Life. Schwartzberg’s high-definition, time-lapse films of Mother Nature at work, including Fred and Lena Meijer’s beloved and popular butterflies, are not only breathtaking, but also inspirational.

Louie Schwartzberg shares what’s behind these films he’s been producing for thirty years. “Beauty is nature’s tool for survival—you protect what you love. I hope my films inspire and open hearts. If I can move enough people on an emotional level, I hope we can achieve the shift in consciousness we need to sustain and celebrate life.”

He sounds a lot like Fred Meijer and Peter Wege talking about their shared vision for educating people about the need to care for and protect the natural world we live in—and the only one we have. David Hooker, President of Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, said since the Gardens opened twenty years ago this coming April, the Wege Lectures have been a great attraction for members and visitors. “In addition to the sculpture Fred loved and the horticulture Lena loved, our mission is also to support the environment and the arts. The Wege Lectures have been about all of those things.”