Big red grill will mark Weber site in Rolling Meadows

Weber-Stephens will install a signature big red kettle "grill" at its new "headquarters of the Americas" in Rolling Meadows.

The kettle, measuring 20 feet tall and 13 feet wide, will sit on the south side of the building at 2900 Golf Road. It'll be seven feet taller than similar grills in front of Weber Grill restaurants in Schaumburg and Lombard.

The Rolling Meadows City Council approved the plan for the giant kettle, which meets setback requirements.

Weber is moving some, but not all, of its offices from Palatine to the Rolling Meadows site, said Russell Sexton, the company's director of facilities. The building was part of the 1970s Gould development that features two office towers. Over the years, the building Weber will use has housed Jani-King, Kimball Hill Homes and Sterling Plumbing.

"We think there are many benefits to the city of having the (grill) structure here - Weber is a popular brand and it is a well-loved brand," Lindsay Taylor, legal assistant for Weber, told the Rolling Meadows Plan Commission in May. "People really enjoy the structure in Schaumburg. Lombard also has a similar structure. It will not be an over-the-top, obnoxious structure. For us, it will bring greater brand recognition and awareness."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance firm that has purchased one of the two towers at the center, sent a letter to the city asking that a decision on the Weber kettle be delayed. The letter said the company was awaiting the results of an architectural design competition to redevelop the property at 2850 Golf Road "including the promenade area which runs from Golf Road past the building at 2900 Golf Road." Gallagher has declined to comment on its plans for Rolling Meadows.

Neither members of the plan commission or the city council mentioned the Gallagher letter, and no one publicly said anything negative about the Weber plan.

Mayor Tom Rooney has mentioned Weber frequently when noting corporations that are improving the economy and image of Rolling Meadows.