This is a photograph of, from the left, the W.J. Dykstra building at 38 W Fulton and the Wm. Alden Smith building at 28-30 Ionia SW, on the corner of Ionia and Weston.  The Smith building sustained heavy fire damage in 1980 and was torn down in 1984.

This photograph was taken by Alan Forist, a Kalamazoo-based photographer. It is part of a collection of images of Grand Rapids, Michigan taken by Forist in the mid-1970s. 

Alan Forist is a Kalamazoo-based photographer who has lived and worked in Grand Rapids. He has been taking photographs of nature, urban landscapes, sports, and other subjects since the 1960s.

In 1973-1974, as a student at Grand Valley State College, Forist was hired by David Hunting and the Dyer Ives Foundation to take documentary photographs of downtown Grand Rapids, focusing on Ionia Street SW. Forist submitted a series of color slides as part of the project. The color images in this collection were those not selected by Dyer Ives for their final project. The black and white images were photographs Forist took of downtown Grand Rapids as an aspiring photographer interested in light, shapes, daily life, etc. They were not taken with any documentary intention, although some were probably assignments for photography classes at GVSC.

Alan Forist is a Kalamazoo-based photographer who has lived and worked in Grand Rapids. He has been taking photographs of nature, urban landscapes, sports, and other subjects since the 1960s.

In 1973-1974, as a student at Grand Valley State College, Forist was hired by David Hunting and the Dyer Ives Foundation to take documentary photographs of downtown Grand Rapids, focusing on Ionia Street SW. Forist submitted a series of color slides as part of the project. The color images in this collection were those not selected by Dyer Ives for their final project. The black and white images were photographs Forist took of downtown Grand Rapids as an aspiring photographer interested in light, shapes, daily life, etc. They were not taken with any documentary intention, although some were probably assignments for photography classes at GVSC.