Three months after aldermen decided to sell the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., and move city offices to a new site, a group of residents is organizing to save the building from demolition.
The new group, Friends of the Civic Center, formed in March and has about 12 members, including former mayor Jay Lytle. Its objective is to convince newly-elected aldermen, who take office May 9, that the Civic Center can be saved.
The group filed a landmark nomination for the Civic Center in March. Landmark status would save the building from demolition.
“I just can’t see ripping that building down because it’s been around 100 years,” said John Kennedy, the group’s founder. “It’s part of the heritage of the city, and there has to be a way of working through a process of saving the building.”
Built in 1901, the Civic Center first served as Marywood Academy, a Catholic girls’ high school. In 1978 the city renovated the school and used it as a city office building.
A 2003 city-commissioned report said the building was deteriorating, and repairs would cost $20 million. In January, the council voted unanimously not to rehabilitate the building.
Kennedy said he is skeptical about the amount of money it would take to fix the building.
“If you look at this $20 million quoted figure, about $10.5 (million) is ‘nice to have’ items – new elevators, new council chambers, new furniture, new carpeting, new lights,” Kennedy said.
A January study by Chicago-based U.S. Equities proposed destroying the Civic Center and placing housing units on the site. No development plan has yet been approved.
But John Zbesko, a member of Friends of the Civic Center, said the U.S. Equities plan might not be the only solution.
“It’s possible that a different group of architects could look at the Civic Center and come up with an alternative plan that would cost less money to the city,” Zbesko said.
Evanston Director of Facilities Management Max Rubin said the building’s high ceilings raise heating and cooling costs. Its layout, mostly consisting of old classrooms, is awkward for an office building.
“I have to maintain it, and I spend public money,” Rubin said. “And I shouldn’t be wasting the public’s money, and we felt moving to another location would be cheaper.”
Landmark designation would give a developer tax incentives to convert the building to residential use, said Mary Brugliera, a member of the Evanston Preservation Commission. The building has a prominent position in its neighborhood, which is one of the criteria for landmark designation, and it is the work of a leading church architect in the Chicago area, Brugliera said.
Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said the council already performed the type of analysis the Preservation Commission would do when considering the nomination and determined the building isn’t worth saving.
A developer would have to gut the building to convert it to residential use, Bernstein said. Improvements would have to include replacing the slate roof, parts of which have been falling off, and repositioning the windows, which are too low.
“Right now a kid can fall out of those windows,” Bernstein said.
But Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said although he would prefer city government offices move to another location, he has not yet closed the door on renovating the Civic Center.
“I can’t completely dismiss the notion that the building can be restored but I don’t know any plausible means by which it could happen,” Moran said.
Mayor Lorraine H. Morton said she would support efforts to preserve the building.
“I would like to see (the council) stay here, but primarily I would like to see the building stay,” Morton said. “It can be repaired.”
The Evanston Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on the landmark designation on April 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Civic Center.
Greg Hafkin can be reached at [email protected].
