Evanston City Council voted 6 to 3 to temporarily move city operations from the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center to an office space in downtown Evanston during the Jan. 22 City Council meeting. The city will operate out of the space for the next 15 years at a cost of $37.4 million following uncertainty about the future of its historic current home.
The city will rent a 52,955 square-foot office space at 909 Davis Street, a whopping downsize from the 112,000 square-foot Civic Center.
Evanston’s move comes after decades of deferred building maintenance, according to City Engineer Lara Biggs. While emergency repairs have taken place at the existing Civic Center, Biggs says “none of (these repairs) will significantly reduce the cost of future renovation work.”
“The purpose of this relocation — on either a temporary or permanent basis — is to forego the immediate necessary capital expenditures (to repair) the Civic Center while still providing a safe and efficient working environment for staff and for community members accessing city services,” Biggs said.
The current civic center location was previously a Catholic girls school. It was named after Lorraine H. Morton in 2009, the city’s first Black mayor who was also the city’s first Democratic and longest serving mayor who previously represented the city’s 5th Ward and served as a teacher in multiple Evanston/Skokie School District 65 schools.
Evanston negotiated a seven-year opt-out clause in the lease allowing the city to move out of the 909 Davis Street location depending on how City Council decides to move forward — whether that be finding a new facility or returning to a renovated Civic Center.
Biggs wrote in a memo saying city staff should expect to move into the downtown location this coming July. Office layout plans will be completed by March 31 with improvements being made to the 909 Davis Street office until staff move-in, the memo states. Evanston will finalize the lease by Feb. 28, even though a final plan isn’t in place.
Staff said on the decision to move downtown is in part to revitalize the area and increase accessibility for residents, a sentiment shared by some residents,
“The largest contributor to my support is the improved access,” resident Jesper Stelter-Hogh said. “The (current) Civic Center is far from public transit and other non-automobile based transportation, moving (downtown) would make it far more accessible.”
Councilmembers Clare Kelly, Thomas Suffredin and Devon Reid voted against the relocation effort. Their opposition comes in part due to costs.
“We’re going to commit taxpayers to a total upheaval of the Civic Center (costing) millions of dollars that could be spent renovating, just like that,” Kelly said.
While many Evanston residents supported staying in the Civic Center during a 2007 referendum, Councilmember Bobby Burns suggests times are changing and a move could help the facility stay relevant for the next generation of workers.
“If you really try to understand (Gen Z) and where they want to work, it would not be in a former school, couched between very quiet residential blocks,” Burns said.
Burns’ sentiment strikes a chord felt by employers nationwide trying to bolster an in-person workforce versus the remote workplace model implemented during COVID-19’s onslaught. Workplaces have been offering game nights, yoga sessions, food vouchers and more to accommodate workers in the process, according to the New York Times, with some offices even undergoing drastic renovations.
