Citing safety concerns, Buffalo Grove Park District demolishing part of headquarters

Citing safety concerns, the Buffalo Grove Park District is tearing down a section of the Alcott Center, its longtime headquarters at 530 Bernard Drive.

The demolition, which will cost about $135,772, will include the facility's multipurpose room.

The architecturally quirky area is topped by what looks like a series of interlocking sloped roofs that overhang some of the windows.

"We recently found out that we have some structural issues" that pose a major safety concern, Mike Terson, the district's superintendent of communications and marketing, said in the video announcing the work.

"Although it is very iconic in the shape, it's also poorly designed in terms of the roof drainage," parks planner Mike Maloney added. "So a lot of the troubles that we're running into were water infiltration."

Maloney said the building actually sits lower than the adjacent sidewalks.

"So any drainage, snow buildup, it all ends up getting in the building," he said.

There are no plans to replace that part of the facility, Terson said.

The building opened in 1960 and originally served as the Alcott School, Buffalo Grove's first public school. The Buffalo Grove Park District bought the property in 1981, according to the Raupp Museum.

Programs that would have been held in the multipurpose room are being moved to the Fitness Center, the Community Arts Center and parts of the Alcott Center that remain untouched.

"At some point, it will be replaced with something more functional that meets the needs of the district as far as programs and rentals," Terson said.

Tim Howe, director of parks and planning, said the demolition will take several days, with the work taking place during business hours.