Going green a great thing in Grand Rapids

The Plain Dealer
December 16, 2007
By Steven Litt
Plain Dealer Architecture Critic

Grand Rapids, Mich. --
A first-time visitor to the newly built Grand Rapids Art Museum could be forgiven for expecting the experience to be like eating a bowl of oatmeal.

After all, the museum, which opened Oct. 5, has been touted far and wide for its "green" architecture, designed to reduce energy consumption, recycle rainwater and make the planet overall a better place to live. It sounds like something that`s healthy and good for you, but not especially tasty.

The big surprise is that in the flesh, the new museum, designed by the Los Angeles architect Kulapat Yantrasast, a 38-year-old former protege of the important Japanese architect Tadao Ando, is stunningly attractive.

Its radiant, light-washed interiors instill the kind of relaxed receptivity that paves the way for peak artistic experiences. As such, the museum heralds the heady possibility that being "green" and beautiful are not mutually exclusive.

That hasn`t always been the case. Virginia architect William McDonough, widely hailed as a global pioneer of green design, defined the utmost in ecologically sensitive architecture earlier this decade with the world`s largest green roof, designed for a Ford Motor Co. truck plant outside Detroit.

McDonough also used innovative technologies at the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College to save energy and recycle used water from bathrooms.

But while McDonough`s buildings have advanced the field and helped the environment, they haven`t lifted spirits with their own physical beauty. The Grand Rapids museum does.

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