Discovery Museum seeks input for move

The move won't take place for about two years, but the Lake County Discovery Museum already is asking for public help to design its new home.

Located since 1976 in dairy farm buildings at the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda, the nationally accredited museum will move to a steel and glass office once occupied by Motorola on Winchester Road in Libertyville.

The new digs will be much bigger. The question is how best to use it.

“We need now to figure out, with the help of the community, what they want the museum to be in the new location,” said Katherine Hamilton-Smith, director of cultural resources for the Lake County Forest Preserve District, which operates the museum.

A short online survey at www.lcfpd.org/museumsurvey will be available through June 10 for supporters and strangers alike to identify challenges, say what works or doesn't, and provide observations. “Anyone can take it, it doesn't matter if you've visited or not,” Hamilton-Smith said. “We want to know why people who never visited never visited. What would encourage them?”

Survey responses also will help determine whether users connect the museum with the forest preserve district.

More than 325 responses have been received in the week or so since the online survey was posted. But it is one of several avenues of pursuit.

“We're working very hard to engage the community,” Hamilton-Smith said. “We're trying to cast the net very broadly.”

Perkins+Will, a Chicago architectural and planning firm, has been hired to provide strategic planning services associated with the museum relocation.

Perkins+Will staff members spent a good part of Memorial Day talking with visitors at Independence Grove Forest Preserve.

Interviews also have been done with educators, donors, community leaders, forest preserve commissioners and staff, for example.

“We've been gathering a lot of data and talking with a lot of people,” said Brian Weatherford, associate principal for branded environments at Perkins+Will.

“It's seen as an opportunity with the location and change ... to really make sure we understand what is appealing to the community.”

The museum will occupy about half of the three-story building, with the forest preserve district consolidating staff in the remainder. The museum relocation will be paid for with private donations.

The move will more than double the space available for artifacts and special exhibits to about 20,000 square feet and allow it to better protect its historic collections.

Aside from its renowned Curt Teich Postcard Archives, the museum has about 25,000 objects in its collection, but only about 6 percent or 7 percent of them are display.

“We have a horse-drawn hearse. We have some really cool stuff but don't have the floor space to exhibit it,” Hamilton-Smith said.

She added the museum would continue to host big events, such as the upcoming Civil War Days, at Lakewood.