Roosevelt, Portillo's among winners of Schaumburg landscape awards
Schaumburg is among the most commercially developed of Chicago's suburbs, but the village has striven to ensure its glass, steel and concrete doesn't overwhelm its trees and flowers.
For 11 years, the village has recognized its best maintained and most improved landscaping in seven categories.
Last week, the village board's Health and Human Services Committee made Schaumburg's Roosevelt University campus the recommended winner of the village's 2017 Best Natural Landscaping Award, for a project started in 2013.
Village staff noted that native plant species comprised about 40 percent of the campus' green space, and that paths of turf grass allow employees to walk among the plantings at 1900 Mitchell Parkway. The parking lot contains long landscaped islands whose plantings help absorb and filter stormwater runoff before it flows to the waste water treatment plant downstream.
Portillo's at 611 E. Golf Road topped the Best Maintained Commercial category for offices, hotels and restaurants. The award recognizes the site's flowering shrubs and planters at its entrance, as well as the annual plantings on top of the enclosure walls for its outdoor trash bins.
Costco at 1375 N. Meacham Road is the finalist for the equivalent award for retail sites due to the attention paid to the landscaping of its parking lot islands and elsewhere, despite the property's heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
The TGM Park Meadows neighborhood north and south of Schaumburg Road at Wildflower was recognized in the Best Maintained Planned Unit Development category for the meticulousness of its overall landscaping and the annual flower displays at its entry monument and clubhouse.
Among the Most Improved categories, Compass Properties at 550 Albion Ave. is being honored for the new landscaping along the south side of its building. The plantings there include four evergreen trees, 76 evergreen shrubs, two deciduous trees, 12 deciduous shrubs, 190 perennials and 59 ornamental grasses.
Market Square Shopping Center at the northwest corner of Schaumburg and Plum Grove roads was named the Most Improved among shopping center and car dealerships for replacing 29 trees and filling in a lot of previously missing landscaping.
Savannah Trace at 1421 Carolina Court is the Most Improved Planned Unit Development of the year for replacing its tennis courts with a 6,600-square-foot dog park and a 5,300-square-foot open park, each of which include useful accoutrements for visitors.
The finalists will become official winners after the full village board approves the list Jan. 9.