By Danny Yadron
Evanston’s a changin’!
Between our Sherman Plazas, our Optima Towers and our North Face stores, it might be hard to recognize the low lying suburb so many of you grew up with.
But you see that’s just the point, Evanston has changed. Beginning with the 1989 Downtown Master Plan, the city has made a conscious effort to pursue new development, bring in new business and revitalize the downtown (which is a good thing).
What many Evanstonians fail to realize is that the 49-story high rise proposed for the Fountain Square block by Focus Development is a natural and needed continuation of this effort.
Lead architect Lawrence Booth presented a tower that is not only elegant, but would provide a much needed focal point to an awkward, lumpy skyline.
Think about it, a monument-like tower of interlocking glass and steel that shines in the sun and illuminates the downtown streetscape at night.
It’s a romantic description, but a more accurate one than the one given by longtime Evanston activist and tower opponent Vito Brugliera last May.
“It’s an extended middle finger,” he said.
If Evanston was ever given the proverbial bird, it was in 1969, when the construction of the Chase Building at Orrington and Davis was completed.
The 22-story building was the first of Evanston’s controversial high rises and officially opened the door to the development we know and love today. If the city wanted to maintain a low homey cityscape dominated by four- and five-story structures such as the Hahn Building, Chase Bank should have never happened.
I’m not proposing a full redevelopment of downtown (although imagine the possibilities!) Keep the Hahn building. Keep the shops on west Davis Street. They’re perfectly compatible with the future.
What’s not compatible with the future is a city that shuns new business, tax revenue and residents.
Focus has already established that the base of the trapezoidal tower will be used for multiple storefronts, which consequently will help fill that Northwestern size hole in the city’s tax revenue.
More importantly, upscale condos will help keep young professionals in Evanston and out of Lincoln Park. The trendy North Side neighborhood is a constant lure for 22-year-olds with college degrees, said a representative of Young Professionals of Evanston who spoke at a September Plan Commission meeting on the tower.
“By recognizing the young professional graphic, the city recognizes the future and prepares for it,” he said.
He’s correct. In 20 years, a completely different set of fire-tongued residents will dominate citizen comment with a completely different set of priorities and values.
The only legitimate argument against what would be the tallest building in Evanston is the current development of a new master plan for the downtown. The plan will produce a completely new set of zoning regulations for the area, which might or might not coincide with erecting a 523-foot tall structure in the center of downtown.
But don’t delay a promising development to see if a plan based on the current state of downtown calls for a radical exception.
Instead, why not make the tower a permanent fixture in the city that would be the basis for a new downtown plan.
So please, build this tower. It will redefine Evanston without radically changing it (or using painted concrete). And most importantly, it will re-establish the city as a truly unique metropolitan area, not a Chicago wannabe or a cookie cutter Arlington Heights. Just Evanston.
Medill sophomore Danny Yadron covers City Council and Evanston development for The Daily. He can be reached at [email protected].
