Songs, Scales and a Spot | Reasons to Love The D

As if we need to list more reasons to love our city … but why not? Here are a few places, faces, items and events that make Detroiters all happy and tingly inside.

Kresge Court

Every city has its watering holes and hot spots for hanging out. Can’t imagine that many of them look as good as Kresge Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts. This is the city’s drop-in living room, so to speak — compare it to your favorite neighborhood coffeehouse, but on steroids. It’s what happens when you get a bunch of artsy, designer types together and tell them to make a social gathering space inside  an art museum. The architectural elements of the court are fantastic, the lighting is exceptional, the decor is an intriguing mashup of traditional and modern, greenery and structure. It’s just a really great place to grab a cozy seat, chitchat, feast on a snack, relax with a glass of wine and just be.

Belle Isle Aquarium

Aug. 18, 1904. That’s the day the Belle Isle Aquarium opened — the first public aquarium in the U.S. Even the Great Depression and two world wars couldn’t shut it down. And except for a short hiatus a few years back, it has always been open. New exhibits are being added all the time. Staples include natives like the bluegill and the catfish. You also gotta love the clown fish, the puffer fish, the starfish, the sea horses and the eels. Sometimes, it’s just time to throw shout-outs to the “institutions” in the city, the places that seem like they’ve always been here and always will be. The Belle Isle Aquarium is one of ours. Visitors welcome on Saturdays and Sundays.

Tracy Reese

A city rich in culture. Amazing people creating something amazing. Passionate. Hardy. These are the phrases and adjectives hot fashion designer Tracy Reese often uses to describe Detroit to the likes of media biggies including Vogue. While she’s now dressing pretty important people, including first lady Michelle Obama and pop music sensation Taylor Swift, she never forgets that she came from Detroit. She even put her hometown front and center during her time on the runway at New York Fashion Week in 2016, debuting her collection through a video called A Detroit Love Song. She’s done pop-up boutiques in Midtown, organized meet-and-greets with shoppers in the city and designed one-of-a-kind runway-style pieces only sold in The D.