Arlington Heights library eyes its old building for new tech learning center

A building that opened in 1952 as the first stand-alone Arlington Heights library could be returning to library use under a proposal to convert it to a "makerspace" for hands-on learning. The village owns the property at 112 N. Belmont Ave. Paul Valade | Staff Photographer, March 2018

When an 8,000-square-foot brick building opened at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Miner Street in Arlington Heights in 1952, it served as the village's first stand-alone library, with enough room for some 50,000 books for the rapidly growing suburban community.

More than 50 years later, Arlington Heights Memorial Library services could return to the site as officials consider creating a "makerspace" -- with hands-on learning tools including 3-D printers and laser cutters, plus access to a kitchen for cooking classes -- separate from the main library campus just blocks away on Dunton Avenue.

Officials from the village, which has owned the property at 112 N. Belmont Ave. since 1994 but doesn't have a use for it anymore, have been talking with library leaders about a potential deal where the library would acquire the building through a sale, transfer or some other type of arrangement involving contributions from both governmental entities.

Terms of the agreement are still being discussed, ahead of a planned community meeting on the project at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in the first-floor Buechner Room of village hall, 33 S. Arlington Heights Road.

"This was the original stand-alone library for Arlington Heights, so putting the next generation of library services within a building that started the library here in Arlington Heights is very appealing to us," said Mike Driskell, the library's executive director.

Village officials began talking to other governmental entities and organizations in town after village board members decided in late 2017 they had no interest in holding on to the property. The building has been vacant since 2017, when Chicago Metro Youth for Christ didn't renew its lease for its teen center. The village-run teen center closed there in 2010 due to budget cuts.

The village planned to issue a request for proposals seeking buyers to renovate the building or developers who would construct two single-family houses, but it pulled back when library leaders expressed renewed interest in the site last April, officials said.

"We felt the proposal from the library was kind of a good win-win solution for the library, the village, the neighborhood and community at large," said Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village's director of planning and community development.

Driskell said library officials have been talking about creating a makerspace for years -- whether within the confines of the library building or somewhere else, including a proposed north branch, which was taken off the table in 2017. Other libraries, including Indian Trails, Elk Grove Village, Barrington and Northbrook, have dedicated makerspaces. Arlington Heights has some elements of a makerspace now, including 3-D printers.

Having a stand-alone building would enable the library to expand its programming in the areas of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics beyond what it has space to do on Dunton Avenue, Driskell said.

The makerspace would serve all ages and include technology and creative equipment and supplies for use in embroidery, quilting and sewing machines, and computers for coding and programming small robots.

"It's really about learning and continued learning in DIY (do it yourself) and giving people the opportunity to access tools they normally wouldn't have access to," Driskell said.

Library officials haven't yet disclosed how much it would cost to program and staff the makerspace. They did say the Friends of the Library and newly established Arlington Heights Memorial Library Foundation could help purchase equipment and pay for some build-out costs.

A village assessment estimates the building, which has a first floor and basement, would need $600,000 in upgrades over a 10-year period -- the most urgent of which would be a new roof; heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system; and parking lot. Driskell said it could take a year to get the building in working order before opening.

The village board is scheduled to consider the proposal in the next few weeks.