Oak Park leaders move to pursue renovation rather than demolition of historic Village Hall

Following backlash from residents, Oak Park municipal leaders are taking a step back from plans to demolish the community’s historic Village Hall building.

Instead, the village will pursue a previously rejected plan to renovate the existing building, which also hosts Oak Park’s police office.

The Village Hall building is prized by many residents in architecturally savvy Oak Park for its striking angular design, a 1975 creation of Chicago architect Harry Weese.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014 due largely to its role in fighting blockbusting, a discriminatory scare tactic to uphold housing segregation, in 1970s Oak Park.

Village President Vicki Scaman attended a meeting of about 30 preservation advocates last week. There, she pledged that the board would focus on renovation and hire a preservation consultant, said resident and preservationist Frank Heitzman.

Scaman told preservationists the board was still concerned with making sure a renovated Village Hall was compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with fewer temperature and noise issues, Heitzman said.

“People can figure out how to do that, I’m sure, without affecting the structural integrity of the building,” Heitzman said.

Village trustees voted earlier this week to amend their contract with regional firm FGM Architects in order to switch to an approach based on renovation and preservation.

The board previously voted July 5 in favor of demolishing Village Hall and building a new combination village hall and police station on the same lot. The new complex would have cost $140 million to build.

The new contract would leave regional firm FGM Architects in charge of plans for a new police station, as well as plans to modernize the existing building enough to bring it up to code.

However, the board will separately hire a historic preservation consultant to assess the building before a final vote takes place. Using FGM’s new list of what Oak Park needs in a village hall, the consultant would present a plan for how the building could be renovated while still addressing FGM’s findings.

[ Oak Park Village Hall could be demolished despite historic status ]

The two firms might present different priorities, Scaman said — which could still be useful in informing board members’ votes.

“What we’re really looking for in terms of FGM is to really outline the basic needs, and give the historic preservationists something to evaluate against,” Oak Park public works Director Rob Sproule said.

FGM would need four to six weeks to create a new plan, Sproule said, and board approval for a historical preservation form likely would not happen until September.

The amendment also devotes $14,000 to fund the new plan, increasing the value of FGM’s contract from $36,000 to $50,000.

Sproule said he doesn’t expect any backlash from FGM regarding the project’s new direction.

“FGM has been very supportive of this process,” Sproule said. “They totally understand the goals of this process and the direction from the board.”

FGM already completed an assessment for what a new police station would need. However, the village has not yet commissioned a similar assessment for remodeling Village Hall, given that the initial vote was to demolish the building, Scaman said.

Trustee Ravi Parakkat, the only dissenting vote, said the needs assessment for renovation should have happened before July’s vote. Asking FGM to switch tracks now could interfere with the board’s commitment to transparency, he said.

“Doing it with an entity that is already wedded to the demolish-and-build option, to me it seems like there is an inherent conflict of interest,” Parakkat said. “FGM has already put forth what their preference would be and how they would like to proceed.”

Daniel Roush, an architect based in Oak Park, shares Parakkat’s concerns. At Monday’s meeting, he pointed out that the firm was initially hired to work on plans for just a new police station.

“It looks odd, and it would completely limit the independence of the preservation or renovation architect that’s coming in,” Roush said.

FGM Architects could not be reached for comment.

Preservation advocates, particularly Oak Park-based architects, continue to argue for the building’s symbolic importance as the board reopened debate.

“Any designer working in Oak Park quickly comes to understand the weight of Oak Park’s architectural legacy,” said resident and architect Don McKay. “It is an unspoken challenge to do exceptional work.”

Along with paying homage to Weese and renowned onetime resident Frank Lloyd Wright, the current Village Hall building also inspired the designs for Oak Park’s public library and community center.

Architects worked hard to create visual symmetry across Oak Park, McKay said.

As a new approach grounded in Village Hall renovation continues to unfold, McKay described Oak Park residents’ approach to civic architecture as full of vitality and dialogue.

“An architectural legacy as rich as Oak Park’s develops over time in ways that may be unknown to the general public, but in ways that are unmistakably woven into our history and our identity,” McKay said.