From rocks to rubble: Elmhurst's Lizzadro building headed for wrecking ball once museum moves
The building housing an Elmhurst museum internationally known for its collection of rocks — especially gemstones and mineral carvings — appears doomed to become rubble next year.
Officials at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, a landmark in Wilder Park for 57 years, announced this month it will close Friday as it prepares to move this fall into a new and larger home in Oak Brook.
Under the terms of a 1961 agreement between Elmhurst Park District and the Lizzadro Family Foundation, the building will become the district's property once the museum leaves.
On Tuesday, park board members reached a consensus that the museum building, designed to look like a jewelry box, should be demolished next year as part of a larger plan to re-imagine the south end of the park.
The 5,000-square-foot structure, which opened in 1962 near the city's downtown, houses one of the largest collections of lapidary art in the world.
It was built specifically for the museum's eclectic collection, but officials announced two years ago they had outgrown the space and would move into a two-story office building at 1220 Kensington Road in Oak Brook that will provide state-of-the-art facilities for exhibits, educational activities and special events.
Jim Rogers, the park district's executive director, said Wednesday officials approached several groups about using the building that will be left behind. But while a few “did a real deep dive look at it,” none offered to move in.
That was no surprise, at least in part because the district had hired Dewberry Architects Inc. to assess the building and the team found several challenges for anyone hoping to reuse it.
While the overall steel structure appears sound, the architects said the roof leaks during heavy rains; one of its columns appears to be shifting; life-safety issues need to be addressed; and it is not ADA compliant.
Even without the cost of interior or exterior remodeling to convert the building from a museum use, the architects estimated it would cost $1.2 million to bring it up to code. With the additional expenditures needed to renovate it for non-museum uses, the project would cost roughly $1.7 million, they said.
Rogers said park staff members now will work to develop a concept not only for the museum site, but also for the district's former headquarters across the parking lot that will be in keeping with the image of Wilder Park and best serve the needs of the community.
That plan likely will involve an “adaptive reuse” of the former headquarters building, parts of which currently are used by bridal parties preparing for wedding ceremonies in the park and parts of which are empty. That study will explore ways to increase public use of the building, he said.
Exactly what the district staff will recommend for the Lizzadro site hasn't been determined, but it's highly unlikely it will involve any sort of building.
The new museum, meanwhile, is scheduled to open in mid-October. Staff members will spend the next several months preparing and then moving the collection — including some extremely delicate jade pieces — to the new Oak Brook site.
“We will miss the museum,” Rogers said, “but we also look forward to the next chapters in the history of Wilder Park.”