From our media partners at WOOD TV:
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The long cold cement sidewalk that spans Fulton Street in front of Van Andel Arena does what it’s supposed to do. It just isn’t very attractive.
“It is functional. But we care a lot about the people that come in,” Steve Heacock, who chairs the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority, said.
So the Convention/Arena Authority and Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. are working on plans to spruce up the place.
“Some plantings in the middle with trees,” Heacock explained Wednesday. “There will be trees, grass, some sloping places to sit. Sort of a nice piazza, plaza sort of setting.”
Van Andel Arena opened in 1996, five years before 9/11 forced public venues to rethink security. That’s part of the plan as well. Currently, there are no barriers between Fulton Street and the front of the arena.
“It’s not something we worried about 18 years ago,” Heacock said as he walked along the front of the arena. “But today, you worry about somebody taking a truck, accidentally or otherwise, and hitting this huge wall of glass. Not acceptable.”
The walkway design would help reduce the risks.
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