Downtown's rebirth is more than buildings

April 8, 2008
by Editorial Staff
Muskegon Chronicle

It may come to many of our readers as a pleasant surprise that "outdoor art" will be a significant part of Muskegon's downtown, now being rebuilt, brick by brick. This isn't really anything new, though. That kind of thinking was part of the "Imagine Muskegon" process of a few years ago, and it's being seen through, primarily, by the Community Foundation for Muskegon County's Downtown Arts Committee.

Patricia B. Johnson, who heads the group, is fully committed to the idea that a downtown is more than just buildings and storefronts, and we couldn't agree more.

A good case in point is a place in front of the Main Post Office that was known for many years as Federal Square. It was kind of a small oasis, with benches and flowers, that stood smack in the middle of a bustling downtown before a federal urban renewal project took most of it away and created a covered shopping mall -- wiping out Federal Square in the process.

More than just flowers and benches, the new, post-mall Federal Square already has a piece of outdoor sculpture in the form of James Clover's "Sculpture with Stars," lately moved into greater public view from the vicinity of SPX's former headquarters.

Other plans for Federal Square -- which won't be called that too much longer -- include a fountain and wading pool, which will become an ice-skating rink in winter. If the downtown needed a public square to serve as a focal point, that might well be it. A fund-raising drive by the community foundation is already under way.

Speaking of points of interest, there isn't much that can be said yet about the Richard Hunt sculpture called "Muskegon, Together Rising," except that it is to be unveiled at 4:30 p.m. June 13, and that it will be huge, soaring some 35 feet into the air in the middle of the traffic circle on Western Avenue at Third Street, in front of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts.

In a downtown that counts the Frauenthal, a great symphony orchestra and a fine art museum among its cultural assets, the Hunt sculpture will surely drive home the point that Muskegon is a community where the arts offer something for everyone.

As Muskegon's answer, perhaps, to sculptures of musicians playing in downtown Holland, our downtown also will see the placement of a full-size statue of the city's great benefactor, Charles H. Hackley. He will be shown seated on a bench in the vicinity of Third and Clay, near the park that bears his name, as if in quiet contemplation of the new city going up around him.

Somehow, we think he'd approve.