Adding two eight-foot-tall concrete chairs to what's now an uninviting Grand River overlook is just one of several people-friendly changes planned for one of downtown Grand Rapids' most promising outdoor gathering spaces.
The east end of Lyon St., between the
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (AGPH) and
DeVos Place convention center, dead ends at an unused concrete amphitheater with the hotel walls on the south and the convention center loading docks on the north.
But it will soon become Lyon Square, a welcoming grove of 32 trees dotted with benches "growing" out of the landscape grade, and two extra-large novelty chairs that families and friends can climb on for photo ops. The plan calls for chairs with eight-foot-tall backs and four-foot-high seats. The chairs should seat four to five people at a time.
The seating will overlook the Grand River just a few feet north of where the Gillette Pedestrian Bridge connects the AGPH, convention center, Reserve Wine Bar and the northeast side of downtown with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Ah-Nab-A-Wen Park and the near west side.
"It's going to create a more pleasing and active riverwalk in front of the Amway Grand and along Lyon Street, and will enhance an important access point to the river," says Stephen Fry, president of
Concept Design Group.
Fry says Concept Design Group's role has been to develop the plaza's original concept created by Washington, D.C.-based urban designer
Jeff Speck, a leading smart growth advocate.
The project includes new lighting, colorful pavers, canopies for the loading docks, outdoor dining for the hotel's Bentham's Restaurant and a rebuilt section along the riverwalk. It will not include the wind turbines and fountains from the original design.
Project developers are the
Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention and Arena Authority, the
Downtown Development Authority, and the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Fry says. Most of the construction will be complete by September.
Source: Stephen Fry, Concept Design Group
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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