GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — After chronicling the demolition of Grand Rapids’ old Kensington School building in a series of photographs entered in ArtPrize, the artist hopes his work will inspire viewers to consider what the future of these buildings should look like.
Though he is now based in Grand Rapids, artist Zachary Trebellas grew up in Illinois and had no direct link to the Kensington School, also known as Adelante High School. The now-demolished building, which was at 1031 Kensington Ave. near Curve Street in the Black Hills neighborhood, was built in 1925, closed in 2004 and sat vacant for years. In 2023, Grand Rapids Public Schools decided to demolish the building and convert it to a green space.
Alumni reunite at GR school set to be demolished
“I think we all have stories in our hometowns of … things that we really like that were destroyed or got torn down. I know in my hometown, we have buildings from the 1910s which were destroyed when I was in high school. And that’s still just a gap in our downtown,” Trebellas told News 8. “I think I really connect with the idea of loss and of losing history that we will not get back.”