Timeless, low-maintenance touches give area classic look

After years of planning and considerable community chatter, Lisle's revamped downtown now has style.

Mayor Joe Broda and village officials cut the ribbon on June 26, celebrating the completion of the Downtown Lisle Streetscape Improvement Project.

The transformation of Main Street gives the village a distinctive place where the community can come together, enjoy a glimpse of its history, savor a taste of urban living and patronize local businesses.

The project was more than a cosmetic overhaul. During the installation process, laying new storm sewers and water mains caused traffic reconfigurations in 2008. But planners thought ahead to replace the aging below-grade infrastructure to preclude future problems.

All the old sidewalks, lighting and pavement were removed in stages. The street went from a four lane thruway to a dashing destination with two-lane roadway and a safety center-island.

The prairie style theme continues the timeless architecture reflected in the designs of the village hall and police department. The nature-based motif's clarity and organic decoration serves the Arboretum Village well with colors of warm earth tones such as ocher, tans and browns.

"Lisle was a community that recognized the value and importance of properly choosing the material and detailing the work to be long lasting and low maintenance," said Randall Machelski, associate and senior designer with JJR Chicago, the landscape architects who designed the project. "The overall goal was to get people slow down, notice the downtown, park their car and walk into the shops."

Two stone entry monuments with lighted tops form a gateway from Ogden Avenue.

Decorative raised stone planters line both sides of the street defining space into seating areas, plant locations and crossing lanes. The black aluminum fencing used on the planters should not rust or cause paint issues. The plant material's palette is compatible with the prairie landscape, including different ornamental grasses and forbes.

Eden stone pulled from a quarry in Wisconsin was used as the cap and base of the stonework walls. It is the hardest limestone available in the United States, Machelski said, and is a sample of the high-quality and low-maintenance materials used throughout the project.

The sidewalk pavements use a window-paning technique of geometric designs. The clay brick pavers have a high-compressive strength and were placed on a concrete subbase with proper drainage below. At crosswalks, leaf imprints enhance the colored concrete. Skate-stoppers also sport a leaf design.

The planting beds have an automatic irrigation system that puts the water where needed and not on sidewalks. An engineered soil that promotes root growth was used around the trees in the tree-grate areas and in some raised beds.

"Room was allowed underground like little tunnels where the native tree roots can grow, which should result in healthier, bigger and longer-lasting trees," said Catherine Schuster, village economic development director. "We allowed for a lot of planting beds and varied trees to enhance our wonderful brand as the Arboretum Village."

Roughly 56 trees were carefully selected for four-season interest. Two elm cultivars developed at Lisle's Morton Arboretum are Dutch elm disease-resistant species - the Triumph elm and the Accolade elm.

Other interesting shade trees include the scaly-barked Chinkapin oak and the Sentry American linden that glows with orange, red and gold leaves in the fall. A number of State Street Miyabe maples were included because of their heat resistance and cold-hardy qualities.

On the corner, an Autumn Gold Maiden Hair ginkgo has stunning golden fall tones and a distinctive fan-shaped leaf. Swamp white oaks, Marmo Freeman maples and Exclamation! London planetrees will add attractive seasonal foliage.

A collection of oval-shaped Ivory Silk Japanese tree lilacs will bear huge clusters of creamy white flowers in early spring.

Banners and flower pots add to the good looks on alternating lampposts. Public works employees water the colorful flora using the department's water truck with an extender. Flowers and vines in violets, reds and yellows compliment the streetlight banners. The fall banners will feature pumpkins and Indian corn and the pots change over for the winter using seasonal holly and berries.

Both the pedestrian and roadway lighting at appropriate heights have a prairie-style cap. Six-foot benches and even trash and recycling receptacles bear a stylized tree design.

A water fountain is the streetscape's focal point. It was a collaboration of all the creative people who worked on the project, not the work of a single artist.

"The village wanted some animation in the fountain and something to fascinate and engage children," Machelski said.

The same Eden stone, this time without a honed-polished finish, is stacked irregularly to create a natural whimsical fountain where sculptures of cranes, frogs and turtles congregate. The perimeter has places to sit while nearby water flows over the eternity edge.

"The desire is to be a kinetic streetscape so in time we will be able to add sculpture that may represent an event," Machelski said. "It was designed to be a base to celebrate other events going on in the community."

The 2009 community art project, Bird Baths of Lisle, is inside stores this year.

Many innovative architects, contractors, designers, engineers, construction and village personnel contributed to the final results.

During the entire project, downtown businesses remained open and tried to survive the challenge. Many businesses and store owners took advantage of the village's facade grant to improve their appearance. Three more are ready to begin. The village instituted a restaurant grant to attract new eating establishments.

For the most part, money to finance the Main Street and Garfield basin projects came from the village's capital improvement budget without a tax increase to fund the work.

"Historically, we have had a conservative budget process for many years here and it has served us well," Village Manager Jerry Sprecher said. "There was a great deal of foresight to save for this (project) in our capital improvement fund. However in the end we did, in fact, borrow $7.1 million from our water fund to complete the project."

Sprecher said the money will be paid back over time from the capital improvement budget. Taxpayers should appreciate that government can follow a budget and sustain a vital community.

• Joan Broz writes about Lisle. E-mail her at jgbroz@yahoo.com.