Schaumburg looks back, forward on 60th anniversary

At the celebration of the village of Schaumburg's 60th anniversary Tuesday, eight-term Mayor Al Larson took the opportunity to look back at goals accomplished and ahead to dreams still unfulfilled.

He said the biggest achievement since the village's 50th anniversary back in March 2006 was the opening of the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center just a few months later.

"It spurred a lot of additional development," Larson said. "It is as much a work of art as it is of architecture."

Without the convention center, Schaumburg would certainly be without most of the quality restaurants that have sprung up nearby during the past decade, he said. And he believes it played a role in Zurich North America's plans to build its new headquarters next door as well as for a tollway interchange to begin construction at Meacham Road.

Larson believes the further redevelopment of the former Motorola Solutions global headquarters will be a big part of Schaumburg's growth in the next 10 years.

But what he would most like to happen before the village's next big anniversary is the completion of the regional performing arts center that was originally intended to be beside the convention center.

He said the economic downturn that has come and gone in the past decade doesn't diminish that hope.

"Dreams do come true once in a while," Larson said. "And it's going to take some heavy dreaming for that to happen."

Tuesday night's celebration at the Prairie Center for the Arts was attended by Larson's fellow Schaumburg officials as well as many other local leaders. Democratic state Rep. Michelle Mussman of Schaumburg read an Illinois General Assembly resolution honoring her hometown on its anniversary. Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig read a similar resolution from his own village, and jokingly referred to Schaumburg as "a good source of jobs for residents of Hanover Park."