The City of Evanston has considered either moving the seat of government or rehabilitating and modernizing the Loraine H. Morton Civic Center at 2100 Ridge since the 1990s. The current Civic Center was built to be a boarding school in 1901 and its design is Ill-suited and inefficient for public service delivery and offices. The building imminently requires many expensive updates.

Likewise, the Police/Fire Headquarters building at 1454 Elmwood is too small and does not meet modern standards for holding cells, victim services support and overall security. Over the next five years it requires $5.5 million in repairs.

The City issued a Request for Proposal for a study to to assess the feasibility of relocating the Civic Center and Police and Fire Headquarters to a new shared facility.  The contract to complete the study was awarded to the engineering firm AECOM. The RFP includes detailed information about the project's goals and rationale.

Study Benchmarks

• Evaluation of space needs to be completed by February, 2022;
• Identification and evaluation of public/private partnership opportunities;
• Identification and evaluation of potential relocation sites;
• Cost/benefit evaluation and recommendations.

Background

A Brief History of Evanston Government Locations, Evanston Roundtable

1998 Evanston Adaptive Reuse & Programming Feasibility Report

2003 Preliminary Analysis of Potential Civic Center Alternatives

2006 Updated Analysis of Evanston Civic Center Alternatives

2007 Evanston Civic Center Space Study Report

2008 Evanston Civic Center Test Fit Study

2008 Scope and Estimated Cost for Health, Safety and Code Required Upgrades to the Civic Center

2008 Civic Center Staff Task Force Status Report

2019 Civic Center Mechanical Systems Assessment

2020 City Owned Real Estate Assets Report