Carol Stream hires consultant for village hall expansion
A major expansion of Carol Stream's village hall took a step forward Monday night when trustees approved an agreement with a construction management firm.
MTI Construction Services, LLC will help the village stick to a project budget that could cost between $13.1 million and $15.6 million.
Included in that price tag is the roughly $1.2 million the village expects to pay the Lombard-based firm over the life of the agreement.
Acting as a consultant, MTI is tasked with refining the scope of the work, seeking bids from subcontractors and overseeing construction.
The firm also could plan for a potential relocation of village business to temporary offices during the project, which could begin next spring and take 14 months to complete.
Besides the addition, renovations would transform the look and layout of the 1970s-era building that also houses Carol Stream police along Gary Avenue.
“We're confident with your staff that we now have a profoundly more efficient, customer-friendly, secure building than what you've been working with to date,” Williams Architects President Mark Bushhouse said of designs.
On Monday, the Itasca firm introduced to the board four concepts to overhaul the building's exterior.
With three trustees absent from the workshop meeting, the rest of the board was unable to come to a consensus on which proposal they favored, but Bushhouse said architects would continue to tweak the renderings based on their input.
More specific designs could emerge in about a month, Bushhouse told the board.
One of the designs, dubbed “option B” by architects, won no support on the board and called for a sweeping glass facade that trustees said was too modern.
By contrast, “option A” offered earth-tone colors and a “simple, streamlined” exterior that would tie in with the rest of the existing building, Trustee Mary Frusolone said.
What is clear is that trustees and village staff members say the project will improve access in the building.
To that end, departments frequently visited by the public — finance, community development, engineering and most of the police department's divisions — would be located on the main floor.
Built in 1979, the village hall was designed for about 30 full-time employees. Now, 165 work out of the building.
With a three-level addition, the size of village hall could increase by 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. To make way for it, crews would demolish a portion of the building and excavate the ground below.