Building Stories: A Belle Isle's Experience Book

A BELLE ISLE’S EXPERIENCE BOOK

BUILDING STORIES

A day at Belle Isle

The images shared in these pages represent memorable moments experienced around the built structures within Belle Isle’s landscapes... In the colors and textures, capturing specific moments of engagement or emotion... In the words, whispering the reader’s imagination. Please use this booklet as inspiration to reflect on your own personal Belle Isle experiences, real or imagined.

To the landscapes that inspire our learning, wonder and curiosity.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Belle Isle Aquarium

Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.”

Like most people, I find watching the lazy and quiet underwater realm of a big aquarium exceptionally calming.

-Michael Dirda

“Aquariums tell stories that everyone interprets differently, what’s your story?”

-Unknown

“And the turtles, of course all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

-Dr. Seuss

“It does not matter how much we donate; it matters whether the donation is meaningful. How to define meaningful? Let society and history judge.”

-Ronnie Chan

Oil corporations can sponsor a tank in the Belle Isle Aquarium. Would culture save nature?

Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory

A continual hint to my fellow citizens to devot themselves to the benefit and pleasure of the public.

-Levi L. Barbour, 1925

“We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators.”

-Rohini Nilekani

“Belle Isle is not going to sink into the Detroit River if we do not approve this lease.”

-Charles Pugh

“I took a cautious step inside, marveling at the sight before me.

A vast conservatory awaited...Sunlight beamed through the enormous glass roof...

I was too awestruck to speak. Vines of bright pink flowers danced over a wrought-iron arbor.”

-Sarah Jio

Dossin Great Lakes Museum

“A normal lake is knowable.

A Great Lake can hold all the mysteries of an ocean, and then some.”

― Dan Egan, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

City of Detroit III

City on the Straights

BUILT BY THE RIVER

The Lord is my pilot; I shall not drift.

He lights me across the dark waters.

He steers me through the deep channels.

He keeps my log. He guides me by the Star of Holiness for His Name’s sake.

As I sail through the storms and tempests of life I will dread no danger; for You are near me; Your love and care shelter me.

You prepare a haven before me in the Homeland of Eternity; You quieten the waves with oil; my ship rides calmly.

Surely sunlight and starlight shall be with me wherever I sail, and at the end of my voyaging I shall rest in the port of my God. -Sailor’s 23rd Psalm

“Capt. Erickson was placed in a difficult position on that night of Nov. 10, 1975, whether to risk his own crew and vessel to head out into a storm that had already claimed one Seaway-sized ship and crew. “

Belle Isle Casino

“Were those old walls to speak, they could tell strange tales, for the people who found a shelter beneath the roof ... were gathered from all walks and conditions of life.”

-Detroit Free Press, 1908

“The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”

-Frank Llyod Wright

“Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.”

-Thomas Jefferson’s Farm Book

Nancy Brown Peace Carillon Tower A Just and Lasting Peace Among Ourselves and With All Nations

William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse The only light in the nation made of marble

Dante Alighieri 1265-1321 Italian Poet, Literary Theorist, Philosopher, and Political Thinker

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

Johann Friedrich Schiller 1759-1805 German Poet, Philosopher, Historian, and Dramatist

“Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.”

Major General Alpheus S. Williams 1810-1878 “Hero of two wars Judge, editor Postmaster, diplomat Member of Congress An untiring servant of the people An honor to the City of Detroit.”

Use this space to sketch or write about a statue that you think should be on Belle Isle.

Use this space to sketch or write about a statue that you think should be on Belle Isle.

Use this space to sketch or write about a statue that you think should be on Belle Isle.

BUILDING STORIES