About proposed new Oak Park library, 
many questions remain

By ERIC LINDEN

Oak Park voters trying to be informed before they make their choice on
the public library property tax referendum next month know that the
library board hopes to be able to demolish the current main library and
replace it with a new three-story structure with parking underneath.

And that's about all that is known definitively so far because of the
way the information process is proceeding. More details about the $30
million project up for March 21 referendum approval won't be known until
the end of February, one of the library architects, Don McKay. said at a
public meeting Thursday.

Don Mc Kay addresses Arts Community

McKay works with the architectural firm of Nagle, Hartray, Danker, Kagan
& McKay, which has been hired by the Oak Park library board to design a
new main library. On Thursday, Dirk Danker, another architect with
Nagle-Hartray, said the overall "bold idea" from the library board is
settled. The seven-member library board previously and unanimously had
decided to proceed with plans for a new library, rather than add on to
the current building, designed in 1964, at 834 Lake St. The library
needs much more space at the main branch, said assistant library
director Jim Madigan, and "this (main library building) can't be
improved the way it is." The new building would be about 100,000 square
feet, or about double of the current space available at the main
library.

Jim Madigan fields questions from the audience.

But details regarding the new library won't be known until library
officials and their architects complete a series of public meetings to
gain residents' input on their wishes for features to be included in a
new library. McKay, one of three Oak Park residents working on the
library plans for Nagle-Hartray, said "concepts" for the new building
should be decided and available by the end of February and that design
of the building will not begin until after the March 21 referendum vote.

For increasing their property taxes by about $160 per year (or about $14
per month) for an average priced single-family home in Oak Park, village
residents would receive a new three-story building at the corner of Lake
Street and Grove Avenue, additional parking under the building and a
closed Grove Avenue and Lake Street to connect the new building to
Scoville Park.

Click on either photo for larger view. Drawing on left is sketch of Version C showing
entrance locations to library. Detail of stairs and other refinements have been omitted
from these views.  The Drawing on the right shows the overall aerial view to show some
scale of project.

Among the library project details left unanswered at the Feb. 17 meeting
between library officials and a few Oak Park residents at village hall
include the following:

-- The entrance. Architects Thursday said patrons might be able to enter
off of Lake Street, from the Grove Avenue side or a combination of both.

-- Where to locate the children's collection and other features. A
difference exists  among residents whether to have children's and young
adult sections on the first floor close to the new entrance or on the
second floor, as is currently the case.

-- Village government approval to close Grove Avenue at Lake Street. The
library's plans include closing access to Grove from Lake and a
cul-de-sac in the middle of Grove between Lake and Ontario streets, but
steps to gain the closing have not been taken as of this week, officials
said.

-- Whether there will be one or two levels of underground parking. McKay
said one level would provide 100 underground spaces and two levels under
the building would net 175 parking spaces. Grove Avenue currently has 50
spaces of surface parking and half of those would be lost if Grove were
closed to create the library "campus" with Scoville Park.

-- Whether the village board also would approve the library's plan to
convert Ontario Street between Grove and Oak Park avenues from one-way
eastbound to one-way westbound. John Troelstrup, a former village
trustee, at the meeting on Thursday said the move would be
"problematic," and he recalled that it took much negotiation with area
property owners to convert the stretch of Ontario from two-way to
one-way eastbound.

-- Two passenger elevators and a freight elevator are to be in the new
library, but their placement is unknown until architects complete their
plans after gaining citizen input.

-- How to replace, if possible or necessary, the storage space in the
current main library's basement. Plans for the new building do not call
for a basement because there would be parking underneath a new
structure.

The Feb. 17 public meeting at Oak Park village hall was designed to get
input from the local arts community and was organized in part by the Oak
Park Area Arts Council. Similar forums had been held previously with
main library neighbors, among other groups.

Those attending Thursday's arts-related meeting and offering
comments--mostly favorably--on the library's sketchy plans included
Camille Wilson-White, executive director of the arts council, which
promotes the arts and arts organizations in Oak Park, River Forest and
Forest Park; Troelstrup, now a member of the Arts Council board; and
board members Rae Kalin, a former chairman of the Oak Park Farmers'
Market Commission, and William B. Sullivan, an Oak Park attorney and
currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state
representative from the 7th District, which includes most of central Oak
Park.

Arts community members called for, among other features, an expanded,
arts-related role for the public meeting room now known as the Veteran's
Room. Also regarding the arts, assistant library director Madigan said
$50,000 in the budget for the new library has been reserved to place art
throughout the new building. But again, no more details were known now
about future artwork or placement of the public meeting room in a new
library building.

Madigan said residents are invited to all forums to give input on their
wishes for the new library. Details about the "concepts" for the new
library may be known, officials said, at two upcoming forums for all
village residents.

The League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River Forest will host a
forum on Feb. 28 and the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library will
host a forum on March 7. 

Executive Director Camille Wilson-White, of the
Oak Park Area Arts Council, and Board Members
Dr. Gerald Clay, and Rae Kalin attend the meeting.