Grand Rapids Art Museum’s trend-setting building turns one

The crowning glory of a new, revitalized downtown Grand Rapids celebrates its first year of bringing world-class art, music, and a whole new vision on how an art museum can be constructed.

According to excerpts from the story:

GRAND RAPIDS -- The larger-than-life photographs -- many of larger-than-life people from Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin to William F. Buckley and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor -- stared back at visitors to the Grand Rapids Art Museum for the first time on Friday.

"I think they're stunningly honest," said Lissy Goralnik, of East Lansing. "Even the famous people, I feel like I'm seeing them in a new way."

In its first year, a total of 140,000 visitors passed through the new museum's doors, roughly double the average attendance in the Federal Building the museum occupied for 25 years. In March, the $75 million building received Gold-level LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmentally friendly construction and operation, becoming the world's first art museum so designated.

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