Evanston is in the beginning steps of creating a web application that offers walking tours of the city to residents and visitors.

The new website will have information, stories and pictures of historical houses, buildings and even streetlights, connecting districts together with a walking tour. The city is accepting applications from designers to create the web application until Friday.

Paul Zalmezak, the city’s senior economic development coordinator who is involved in creating the application, said although Evanston has architectural significance, there’s not a lot of information available currently.

“I didn’t realize we had these architectural gems up here,” Zalmezak said.

The information on the city’s website is highly technical, Zalmezak said, and he expressed his desire for information focused more toward entertainment.

The city’s Economic Development Division and Historic Preservation Division are working with Miguel Wong, co-founder of collaboration space coLab Evanston, located at 900 Chicago Ave. Members of the Preservation Commission and the Evanston History Center are also partners in the project, according to a news release from the city.

Zalmezak said the groups conceived of the idea last spring and summer in an attempt to connect Evanston’s economic development with its historic preservation.

The application’s designers will be picked before the end of October, Wong said. They will each receive a stipend of $500, though their work is considered “volunteer effort,” Zalmezak said.

A committee of experts will also be formed to provide and maintain content for the web application.

Wong said they are looking to complete the project by the end of the year. However, without designers, they are not sure of the final details of the application, Zalmezak said.

“It’s an interesting little tool that we’re going to have here,” Zalmezak said. “We’re hoping for it to be the basis of something bigger.”

Zalmezak said their focus will be on the Evanston Lakeshore Historic District. A lot of information is available about the landmarks in that area, but Zalmezak wants to add additional information about the area’s architecture, he said.

Wong also said one of their goals is for the web application to capture stories about the buildings in a more graphic format, with more pictures and less writing.

Both Zalmezak and Wong said they think the application will attract more visitors to Evanston. It provides a structure for people to have fun while walking through the neighborhoods, whether they’re residents or tourists, Wong said.

“It enriches our connection to the community,” he said.

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