Reworked police station design gets trustees’ stamp of approval

Wilmette’s $50.5 million police station got the go-ahead Tuesday, Aug, 25, to move to Phase 2, drafting construction documents.

The Village Board reached a “general consensus” on the direction of the proposed station’s revamped exterior design, and now FGM Architects will make final tweaks and get into the “nitty gritty work” of preparing documents, Village Manager Mike Braiman said.

Mike Elliott and Louise Kowalczyk of FGMA presented updates on the station, 710 Ridge Road, following feedback from the July 22 Village Board meeting, where village officials criticized the station’s design, and the Aug. 4 Appearance Review Commission meeting.

FGMA heard calls to soften the building’s appearance, adapt a more pedestrian scale and make the building fit better in the neighborhood — all of which factored into the modified exterior design presented on Tuesday.

“Some of those things we had heard started to influence how the design started to evolve to try to meet some of these different requests as we went through,” Elliott said. “… This is why we look, we work in community settings, and this is the interactive piece that we look at and how a building comes together.”

Proposed changes incorporated elements from two concepts presented to the Appearance Review Commission in August.

The biggest design change was a switch in brick color to adopt a warmer tone, Kowalczyk said.

Other notable changes include simplifying the building’s signage and moving it down to eye level, increasing the amount of landscaping with native plantings, adding brick patterning, installing a limestop cap at the top of exterior walls, and changing window design.

FGMA also proposed a combination of brick and open fencing to secure the station’s perimeter — a 3-foot high brick wall to match the building with a 4-foot fence on top.

“We need to be comfortable with the direction,” Braiman said. “And once we’re comfortable with the direction, FGM can really get running with their team of subcontractors to put those construction documents together.”

The board offered a few tweaks, including Trustee Mark Steen’s call for a further expanded native garden in place of cement, a suggestion echoed by Trustee Gina Kennedy, but overall it was pleased overall with the direction of the design updates.

Trustee Gerry Smith said he appreciated the “subtleties” added to make the police station fit in better with the neighborhood.

Kennedy and Village President Senta Plunkett both thanked FGMA for its careful incorporation of past input into its new design.

“I feel like we’re moving in the right direction now,” Trustee Justin Sheperd said. “It fits better with the neighborhood. It’s softer, approachable. It’s a great addition.”

Budget updates

The board also revisited the budget estimate, which reportedly is still on track at $50.5 million.

FGMA built a $1.47 million contingency into the original budget, and as projected hard costs decreased (from $43.02 million to $42.94 million), allowing the contingency fund to increase to nearly $1.55 million, said Marc Rogers, who works in project management at CCS International, Inc.

Factors including more stormwater storage at Howard Park and a reduced amount of glass in the building contributed to the decreased estimates, Rogers said.

With ongoing and upcoming volatile market conditions including tariffs, having an increased contingency will allow for flexibility rather than preemptively reducing one’s budget, he added.

“We’ve held that line steady right now, and we’re planning to hold that line steady to some level, to a reasonable level, as we move forward to at least have some push in there for market conditions as they change over the next six months when we want to bid,” Rogers said.

Sustainability considerations

The Village Board also considered the inclusion of solar panels on the roof of the new police station on Tuesday.

Solar panel installation was one of three sustainability practices recommended by the Municipal Services Committee at its July 21 meeting. Although not included in the original $400,000 sustainability budget, solar panel installation reportedly would come at no additional increase to the overall project budget.

This addition necessitated an amendment to the Village’s contract with FGMA for additional design fees of an amount not to exceed $32,000, which the board approved in a unanimous vote. The estimated project subtotal (down from $49.03 million to $48.95 million, without contingency dollars) includes the implementation of solar panels, Rogers said.

Installing solar panels would provide electrical savings to the Wilmette community, and a future study will determine how much the average residential bill can be saved with solar, Braiman said.

“Between the electricity savings to the community as a whole and how efficient the building can get, it seems like a very compelling case to at least do that design contract amendment and get more information on the solar so we can decide whether or not to proceed,” he added.

Next steps

With plans for FGMA to launch the construction development phase, the construction document, with 50% completion, and a cost update will come to the board in October.

In the meantime, the Zoning Board of Appeals will consider zoning approval for the new station at its Sept. 3 meeting before the Village Board does so at its Sept. 23 meeting. 

A second construction document review (95% completion) and cost update will go before the board in November. Bids will open in December or January, depending on the holidays, with contracts awarded in January or February.

The 53,000-square-foot facility remains on track for its spring 2026 groundbreaking.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.