Guess Who Made Architectural Digest’s Top 15 Places to Live?

I have written about this before that Grand Rapids keep popping up on the radar of  national publications for best places to live, raise a family, find a job, available health care, cost of living, quality of life, etc. But surprisingly, we, Grand Rapids, just made Architectural Digest's list of the top 15 places to live for design lovers. Really?

U.S. News & World Report releases a list of the Best Places to Live in the US each year, and you always see a few big players, like.....

Boston

and San Francisco. U.S. News considers quality of life, the local job market, value for your money, and the place’s desirability. So, AD took the top 75 from U.S. News and picked the 15 best places to live for design lovers.

Grand Rapids Art Museum

They chose their top 15 based on access to museums, art, cultural institutions, and top-notch architecture. They also considered which cities best fuel creative energy and make the best places to live for designers, artists, and innovators.

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado was chosen as #1 in their list. Followed by Sarasota, Florida #2, Madison, Wisconsin #3, Boise, Idaho #4, and.....

Downtown Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids, ranked number 20 as a U.S. News Best Places to Live, came in at #5 in Architectural Digest!

AD had this to say about Grand Rapids:

"Not only does Michigan’s second-largest city have 1,200 acres of public parks, over 100 colorful murals, and public sculptures like La Grande Vitesse, it also has housing costs that fall below the national median. And furnishing that affordable house could be a design lover’s dream, considering one of the local furniture companies is Herman Miller. In fact, Grand Rapids has a long history of fostering furniture innovation and even earned the nickname Furniture City. Today, Grand Rapids Public Museum is home to a collection of over 2,000 historically significant pieces of furniture."

Quite an honor and certainly something to be very proud of.