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Tour Showcases North Park Campus Improvements
CHICAGO, IL (June 27, 2003) - North Park University (NPU) is sprucing up its
campus and on Thursday night 80 attendees from the 118th Annual Meeting of
the Evangelical Covenant Church took a peek at the school's new look,
thanks to nearly completed $3.5 million landscaping project.
The university gave a tour of the campus and hosted a picnic with President
David Horner discussing how the project has taken shape. A more formal
dedication for the project will be held during Homecoming weekend in
October, but Horner was more than willing to show off what has already been
done.
"The totality of this design is not something you'd find at many other
campuses in this country," he said. "And the credit really goes to the
remarkably visionary and generous anonymous donors who committed to this
project."
In the fall of 2001, NPU celebrated the dedication of its new Brandel
Library. At that juncture, the university was encouraged by outside donors
to think more expansively about a campus green space project that would
improve the look of the campus surrounding the old library, curtail
flooding problems in one of its buildings - Wilson Hall - and eliminate
significant vehicle traffic on the west side of campus through the
closure of Spaulding Avenue.
The university worked with the city of Chicago on numerous logistical
issues involving (among other things) alley demolition and burying overhead
utilities. It began work on its comprehensive landscape design in the
summer of 2002. Donors contributed $2.5 million and NPU received a grant
from the "Illinois First" program for another $1 million, making the
landscaping project a viable option.
In February, the major landscaping began in earnest with the demolition of
Spaulding Avenue. Horner hopes the final landscaping work will be finished
in early August. One can view green space from Brandel Library to the Old
Main building. The new sidewalk extending across campus and recently
planted trees make the building-filled Spaulding Avenue area seem like a
distant memory.
"It (the new landscaping) makes us more cozy and grand at the same time,"
Horner said. For more about NPU's landscaping project and the dedication
events during Homecoming weekend, call 773-244-5567.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
