Thanks to Charles Stroh, WMU Professor Emeritus from the College of Fine Arts, residents of and visitors to Kalamazoo have a new resource for exploring the city.
Kalamazoo Architectural Tours is a CD with six walking tours of different areas of Kalamazoo. The tours are about architectural elements and historical styles of well-known buildings.
Stroh developed the idea after years of educating students and community members about the architecture of Kalamazoo. From 2008 to 2009, Stroh prepared a column for the Sunday Kalamazoo Gazette titled Hidden Kalamazoo.
"It was an architectural treasure hunt whereby the person was shown a detail from an architectural source all within short distance of Bronson Park. The participant was asked to identify the architectural element being shown and the location of that element. The Gazette provided prizes," Stroh said. "That newspaper column grew from an exercise I used in an introductory art class at WMU where students were challenged to find buildings and architectural details that were connected to places we were studying in class."
The success of the Gazette series prompted Stroh to start on a small 'pocket book' but due to a lack of funding, the project never came to fruition. "Out of that frustrating experience came the Phoenix we have today," Stroh commented.
The six tours include: 1. West Michigan to East Michigan avenues. 2. From Rose to Lovell Street. 3. Churches around Bronson Park. 4. Area around the walking Mall. 5. Residential properties on West South Street. 6. Government Buildings. (More detailed information about the tours can be found by clicking here)
The material on the CD is copyrighted, but once purchased permission is given to convert the material to a format that can easily be used on a smart phone or tablet device.
For more information, or to purchase the Kalamazoo Architectural Tours CD, please follow the link below.
Website — Kalamazoo Architectural Tours CD
The image above features metalwork detail from Luminaire on the Kalamazoo City Hall.