2 E. Fulton Building's Fate Decided

Remember the building on 2 E. Fulton St that was blogged about a month or so ago? The one David Lorenz from Visbeen Associates designed concepts for and submitted as a piece to vote for during ArtPrize? Here's a quick refresher. Recently, the 2 E. Fulton St building (and its renderings) was discussed in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, which announced that this city "eyesore" will finally be renovated by Locus Development. Vacant since 1998, Locus Development will be investing $4.5 million into "historically redeveloping" this building.

While they are not giving out too much information just yet as to which business specifically will be occupying the space, John Green and Andy Winkle of Locus Development did reveal that the top floor will be occupied by an office tenant, and the ground floor will be a new restaurant. What type of restaurant is coming has yet to be said, but Green did say we do not have "this type" of eatery yet in Grand Rapids.

Green stated that he hopes for construction to begin near the end of the first quarter of 2012 and have the work finished before ArtPrize starts up again in September.

ArtPrize 2011: Let the voting begin!

image source: http://www.avartica.com/gallery/500/75ff6229e0e5b914.gif

As of last night, ArtPrize is in full swing! This is a very exciting time for Grand Rapids and for Visbeen Associates because David Lorenz, our senior designer, is an official ArtPrize artist. Three of his stellar watercolor renderings are featured at 2 East Fulton on the north side of the building. Titled "Potential Revealed," these pieces capture the vision for what the building at 2 East Fulton could be. After the Livingston Hotel burned down on this property back in 1924, this building was erected as the Davenport Institute and later was used as the Junior Achievement Building followed by roughly 15 years of vacancy. Now, Visbeen Associates is working together with Locus Development on the possibilities for this building to preserve the rich history of its past while encouraging the growth, culture and community of the future downtown Grand Rapids.

Here are a few photos of the actual piece, but please check it out in person and vote for David!

2 East Fulton Design Concepts

What used to be the Junior Achievement Building on the corner of Fulton and Division in downtown Grand Rapids has been purchased by Locus Development with plans to fully renovate the property. Visbeen Associates is the design architect working with Locus and Tower Pinkster (architect of record) on the design of this project - check out these conceptual watercolors recently rendered by the talented David Lorenz. We are very excited about the project and the potential for this downtown diamond-in-the-rough!