The Flickr Medicalmile Image Generatr

The big, long Grand River flows along the valley bottom just beyond the line of large buildings in the distance. These are part of the health care in the city of Grand Rapids. Now nearing the last days of March, many trees have buds ready to flower and then leaves to grow out to capture solar power into biological energy by means of chlorophyl and photosynthesis. Once the tree canopy fills out, most of the buildings in this 100' view will be hidden.

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The bus platform stands above the sidewalk level and the street elevation. In this picture the two sections forming the double-length bus can be seen.

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Facilities, offices, suppliers and related services for healthcare and wellness are concentrated all along the east-west corridor of Michigan Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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From demolition to prepare the building site, to frame of steel and enclosing the working space and making floors, walls, and ceiling, the process has been slowed by the peak Covid years. At last, though, the opening day does not seem to be too far away.

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The past 18 months or more the visible signs of this high rise have been going on at the corner of Lafayette and Michigan in downtown Grand Rapids. Hopefully, the architects are up to date on green materials, construction techniques, and building performance (water use, HVAC to conserve energy, passive solar absorption in winter (but reflection during the hot weather), and so on. With extreme weather events likely to multiply and compound their harms, a new building will have to be well conceived, constructed, and used in smart ways to fulfill its purpose during shifting seasons and increasing disasters.

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Looking south on Lafayette Street NE to the Medical Mile in downtown Grand Rapids that extends left and right along Michigan Street, there is a new steel frame rising in the skyline.

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Counting the floors visible in this view of the steel frame of the newest skyscraper, it seems to be 10 or 11 floors above street level, and doubtless more underground. This view looking to the west shows some of the other large buildings for health care, medical research, and supporting services. At the left edge of the frame is the front door to the nursing college to supply trained professionals to staff these many suites and offices.

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This is the Medical Mile, the chest plate of Downtown Grand Rapids as you come in from the East. I was just on my way home from work, when I doubled back to take a couple pics from this angle. usually I am moving fast up the exit ramp, and the traffic blocks so much more. From so many cars, to semi's hauling stuff. I call it a concrete jungle as not even 40 years ago it didnt look so congested. The powers that be call it progress, I call it a devastation to civilization, and the climate.

The periodic photos recorded from this spot show the steady rise from the ground of the steel frame, then the enclosure of the walls and soon also the roof. Interior pipes and wires already are well on their way to completion, even as the exterior is being finished.

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The demolition of a familiar architectural mass first caught my eye, but then I noticed the egg carton effect of so many cars neatly parked side by side, level by level. It is hard to imagine normal life without gas-powered personal transportation. But as more and more part of the world pave their roads and sell cars, the cumulative effect is planetary biological destruction and extreme weather to accompany the rising sea level and melting reserves of polar (reflective) ice. Within a generation some of the biggest societies of consumer and polluters will have to switch to transportation powered by electricity generated by renewable energy sources of sun, wide, tide and current. Probably parking structures will still be prioritized over pedestrian movement in the future as it is now in 2022.

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Based on memory, the structure seems to date from 1970s or 1980s, when the world was a much different place and foreign imported steel started to compete with US-made steel. Now 40 or 50 years later the valuable land adjacent to the cluster of hospitals in downtown Grand Rapids with immediate access to I-196 is being put to another purpose. So down comes the cement and steel, hopefully to be resold or repurposed. If nothing else, then the solid waste can be recycled rather than to rest at a landfill mountain. The right half of the picture shows a newer parking structure that connects directly to the hospital buildings.

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Michigan Street in downtown Grand Rapids is nicknamed the "medical mile" for all the hospitals and related offices and services concentrated along this corridor. This video clip from a few streets south of Michigan Street (on Lyon St.) shows a front-end loader at work, moving among the rubble piles before returning for fill dirt to lift into a waiting truck.

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On the horizon ahead are some of the many medical and supporting businesses and hospitals that make up the "Medical Mile" of downtown Grand Rapids. In the middle distance on this bridge over the Grand River is one of the signs to the parking spaces for mass vaccine appointments.

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Large institutions like colleges, hospitals, city offices, and public safety departments have a fixed schedule to test the emergency electrical generators so that in the event of a disaster or power outage the sourcing of power can proceed with minimal disruption to services.

This video clip shows the large installations in operation to the south of the main hospital buildings that line Michigan Street in Grand Rapids city center as part of the "Medical Mile" downtown.

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The Medical Mile in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Pentax Single In April Day 28, K3 and DA 10-17.

As seen in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Not long before it opened