The city’s Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee (SPAARC) gave its final approval Wednesday of plans for the proposed Evanston Museum of Time and Glass, which is under construction at 1560 Oak Ave., site of the former Catholic Women’s Club.
The city’s Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee (SPAARC) gave its final approval Wednesday of plans for the proposed Evanston Museum of Time and Glass, which is under construction at 1560 Oak Ave., site of the former Catholic Women’s Club.
Plans for the museum were disrupted last March when a major fire razed the existing building, which forced it to be demolished.
Because it is located within the city’s Ridge Historic District, plans for the new building were subject to review by the Evanston Preservation Commission. This approval was granted in August. But it still had to pass muster from SPAARC, a committee comprised of representatives from several departments within city government, such as planning, zoning, and fire prevention.
There was some discussion about handicap accessibility. Architect Adam Wilmot, representing the new museum’s owner, Cameel Halim, noted that the handicap entrance was at the rear of the building, off the alley, although wheelchair passage could be provided from the sidewalk off Oak Street if planned landscaping were altered.
The committee decided that the rear entrance met the requirements of state and federal law and that additional accommodation would not be necessary.
Halim, a real estate investor who owns the Carlson Building among other Evanston properties, plans to display his extensive collection of antique time pieces and stained glass in the new museum.
No excuse for front door access
There is no excuse for not having front door access at this point
Proper ADA access
The front door as well as the alley doors should be accessible on the first floor. It is a new building and should comply with both the letter and spirit of the ada and provide equal access to all (especially if all that is needed is a change in the landscaping). Looks like it will be a nice building, make it nice for everyone.
More city employee screw ups!
"SPAARC, a committee comprised of representatives from several departments within city government, such as planning, zoning, and fire prevention."
What a bunch of clowns! This is a new building, not allowing front door access to people in wheel chairs is disgusting. beyond incompetent. Hey Wally you fire the Handicap coordinator where is the person that represents the disable here? You claimed you would not have a problem, with dealing with ADA. This looks like a problem to me.
Allowances to the Handicap code may be accept in a modification to a major historic building but not to a new structure. This shows me the city staff is not qualified to do their jobs. Someone needs to sue the city. Maybe the city attonery can comment on this one?
Really? This monstrosity?
A beautiful historic building mysteriously burns to the ground and this what is created to replace it? Thank goodness I only live close and not next door. I get the anger regarding ADA, and I agree wholeheartedly. But this building changes the entire landscape of the neighborhood. This is now the sightline from you window or even from you hotel room: a nice yellow wall 3-4 stories high. How can Evanston let this happen?
ADA access
A disabled person most liklely would be driven to the Time Museum. There was special effort to provide parking in the rear of the building and it would be logical to provide ADA access there.
ADA access
1. You can't generalize "what people would most likely do". People might get driven to the museum. Thay also might take a bus, a wheelchair, a walker, a service dog, a cane, or hold hands with a friend. The beauty of the ADA is that it is written so that all persons with disabilities have equal access to all amenities of a building. That includes the front door.
2. No special effort was made to provide parking at the rear of the building. It is the only place it can go (it can't be in a front yard).
ADA Access
It is hard to believe that the City staff and the building architects could even consider not providing access for the handicapped from the street and as an integral part of the main entry. This has been a reasonable requirement for years since the ADA first was established and the rules were promulgated.
Aside from the obvious slight if not discrimination toward the handicapped that is not much different than "please sit in the back of the bus" or "please enter through the back and use the "coloreds" entry", there is or should be an overall sense of fairness.
There is precedent, by the way, for what happens if no front entry is provided:
The Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, although designed by world-famous architect, I.M. Pei, did not have a handicapped entry at the main entry to the building but set it way off to one side, albeit on the front facade. That did not last long before the protests and threats of, if not actual lawsuits came rolling in. Needless to say, at far greater expense than if a part of the oriignal, a new accessible entry was designed and built at the main building entry.
As to other comments that have been posted regarding the overall design, sadly, this looks like an ad for Dryvit that synthestic stucco you see on the facades of all the strip malls on Dempster and not brick or stone. Not a very worthy replacement for what burned down or as a neighbor to the bulidings nearby.