From Every Columbus Window
It's a drab, windswept day as I point my car south toward the Brewery District. The familiar red brick of German Village spills out before me, welcoming me like an old familiar friend.
Days like this, when business draws me from one corner of Columbus to another, offer a welcome chance to soak in the panache and resolve of our proud city.
Every day, Columbusites invite me into their homes. They come to me ready to invest in new windows. In living rooms and around kitchen tables, I find daily renewal of my faith in people to build a community.
In the Short North, the young and young-at-heart infuse imagination and energy into the streets on which we walk. The homesteads of Franklinton remind me of our hard-scrabbled determination, so uniquely Midwestern. And in Olde Towne East, an architectural collage still in progress reflects our city's own patchwork identity back upon us.
See, whether you settle in Columbus or grow-up here, you are inevitably transformed. The city becomes you. You become Columbus.
The fabric of this town is a brightly colored tapestry woven of American entrepreneurship and immigrant hope, of civic responsibility and unshakeable resolve. We are a city of builders, makers, thinkers and doers. And the nation looks to us as a model.
Forbes magazine ranked Columbus among the top 100 places for business and careers in July 2007. Money magazine has ranked our city the 8th best city in which to live. We're among the most diverse, most cultural, most investment friendly cities nationwide.
Even as a worried nation searches for answers in an uncertain economy, the people of Columbus pour themselves into improving their homes, their workplaces, and their city.
In 1986, I fell in love with the window business. I've helped thousands of Columbus homeowners bring new vitality to their homes, much as they have brought vitality to our city. Their renewal is our renewal.
As I head home from German Village, I realize it's not windows that I love, but what we see through them. From every window in Columbus, you'll see a proud, vibrant city brimming with heritage and hope.
- Dan Wolt, Zen Windows
January 17, 2008