How the Wheaton Park District bounced back from a rocky start to a grand re-opening
By Kristina Nemetz and Rob Sperl
As park and recreation professionals, we know capital construction rarely goes as planned; there are often delays and change orders that are out of our hands. The Wheaton Park District in Illinois finally met its ultimate challenge with the Memorial Park renovation project, originally set to open in June 2020.
Leading up to the groundbreaking in August 2019, district officials spent three years coordinating focus groups, working with park users, neighbors, and other stakeholders to create a conceptual plan. Late-night meetings with neighbors and early-morning redraw with the engineers became the norm as the project was set to renovate the park district’s oldest park situated between the downtown business district and a dense residential area to the north. “It was easily the project in my career that was equally met with both the most support and most pushback,” says Michael Benard, Wheaton Park District Executive Director. “Our board and staff worked hard to push this project through as the almost 100-year-old park was in dire need of renovation—especially the outdated bandshell and the namesake memorials that had been established over time.”
In the final plan, the park features increased stormwater management by strategically designing park slopes to channel water to an underground vault. Native trees and plantings were added in a design that worked around the park’s oldest trees to maintain the integrity of the shaded area. The biggest improvement is the new bandshell which features a concession stand, storage for the municipal band, dressing rooms, indoor public restrooms, and an enhanced sound system focused on limiting noise pollution in the neighborhood. Additionally, the design increases multi-use space within the park for community gatherings and rentals, as well as creating an enhanced veterans memorial that gathers many of the commemorative plaques in an area centered on a history wall that surrounds a WWI doughboy statue. All of this was completed within the $5-million budget, thanks in part to some value engineering of the original design.