New home readied for forest preserve

The Lake County Forest Preserve District is expert at restoring natural habitats, but transforming its new home base into a more welcoming space will be a bit trickier.

With marble floors in the entry, paneled walls, polished chrome and other hard-edge features, the box of a building on Winchester Road and Technology Way in Libertyville screams corporate office.

Unlike the longtime district headquarters in an old house in the woods, the former Motorola center lacks natural charm.

“It is going to be a challenge, I won't dispute that,” Tom Hahn, the district's executive director, said while touring the new facility with some visitors.

That is especially evident in the two-story public lobby.

“It does look very corporate right now, but we're going to soften it,” he added. “One of the challenges is when people come into this building they feel part of the forest preserve.”

Hanging banners, large murals, graphic images and some curved walls inside will assist in the transition.

“We're opening up the ceiling where we can to provide some height and relief to a pretty sterile environment,” added Bob Wilson, senior vice president and project manager for VOA Associates Inc., the firm doing the planning for the third-floor offices.

Outside, portions of the blacktop parking lots at some point may be replaced with a rain garden or other features to create a mini-forest preserve of sorts.

But that work is not the main focus at the moment.

“My goal is to get people in here and start using the space,” Hahn said.

Outlines of what is described as an “open office” concept have been taped to the floor as preparation continues in advance of construction to reconfigure the space for offices, conference rooms and other features more suited to a public agency whose focus is on nature and the environment.

By the end of summer, about 100 employees from eight scattered sites for the first time will be working together in the same place.

And in 1½ to 2 years, the Lake County Discovery Museum will move from an old farm house at the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda into the new building in Libertyville.

Museum operations will occupy the more than half of the three-story building, doubling its existing space and basically reinventing itself.

“We are going to work very hard during the strategic planning process to soften,” the new surroundings, said Katherine Hamilton-Smith, the district's director of cultural resources. The process will involve extensive public input, she added.

Because of special considerations for the collections, exhibits, archives, sensitive artifacts and other aspects associated with a museum, the district plans to hire a firm with specific expertise to plan the museum relocation.

Perkins & Will Inc. of Chicago was selected from 28 respondents as the most qualified, and the forest district board will vote on a contract Tuesday.

While the museum relocation is on the horizon, the building already is in use.

About 15 employees from the environmental education, land preservation and fundraising divisions offices occupy temporary quarters on the first floor, their former work places deemed too decrepit for continued use.

The same can be said of the district's headquarters of the past 35 years — a 1920s-era home once owned by meat packing magnate David Armour just east of Milwaukee Avenue in the Independence Grove Forest Preserve.

Some of the offices are in closets or hallways, the septic system is failing and the electrical system shorts out, among other problems.

Knowing it was facing substantial costs to deal with aging facilities, the district more than a decade ago began saving for a new home to consolidate employees and equipment.

The forest board in a near unanimous vote last February agreed to buy the 10-year-old Motorola office building, which had been vacant for two years, and nearly seven acres for $4.1 million.

That was considered a bargain price and substantially less expensive than renovating existing facilities or building new ones.

The district intends to be cost conscious by having staff to do the moving, demolition and some construction; buying refurbished furniture; recycling carpet for a credit against new carpeting; and, using 75 percent of the existing lighting, for example.

“We're trying to use as much as we can in the building,” Hahn said.