The Old Bandstand - Right for Metropolitan Square Plaza?

Here's an idea.

Photo courtesy Des Plaines Historical Society

Since Metropolitan Square opened, people have been saying that the crescent-shaped plaza in the middle seems unfinished - it's just an expanse of brick.

 To my understanding, it was designed to have a feature of some sort in the middle, but it was cost-engineered out. So really, it's unfinished: it's Metropolitan SQUARE and this is the "town square" component (yes, it's a crescent, but architecturally it functions as a square), and you generally have a feature on a Square. It works well for things like the Christmas trees that are there now, but through most of the year, there's just no center piece. It was obviously planned that way; it's axial with Center Street. If you stand in the middle of the square, and look towards Miner Street, it frames two other key parts of downtown, the Metra station and the Library. There should be another civic feature on the plaza to draw the eye and draw in people and shoppers. Metropolitan Square has had problems from the get-go, but it's not going to disappear and we need to make the best of it.

There have been vague ideas for something like a fountain in the middle, but that probably wouldn't work that well - it would be noisy for the sidewalk cafes for the restaurants around it, and the canyon of condo buildings and parking garage would echo and amplify that. Like all other outdoor fountains in Illinois, it would also be shut off half the year. Still pretty, but less pretty. It would also cost a lot in maintenance and probably insurance.

So, instead, what if we look back to how our predecessors addressed a similar need. Park Place (which was basically moved a few feet when Metropolitan Square was developed and is now called Market Street) had been run through to Jefferson Street, leaving a triangular sliver of land that still exists next to the choo-choo. This island has been reconfigured a lot since then; neither Jefferson nor Park runs through anymore, and the streets have been curved to make the turns on and off Lee safer.

It was 1892, and Des Plaines was swelling with civic pride. It had installed its first plank sidewalks that year, and on September 22, the first Village Hall would be dedicated (where American Mattress now stands at Ellinwood and Lee). At the same time, the treasury dwindled to $64.82 in 1893. In August 1892, an octagonal bandstand with a 6' platform was built for the Des Plaines Band on that otherwise useless triangle of land; it was a place the community could gather. It stood there until the 1920s.

Wouldn't a replica of this bandstand be a perfect centerpiece for Metropolitan Square, a half-block away from the original location? There's nothing downtown that serves the function this gazebo did over 100 years ago, and the plaza is designed for the same use. The historical society already has a small-scale replica of it, and uses an image of it as one of its emblems, but a full-size replica (in less flammable materials) would work great in Metropolitan Square. While helping us reconnect to our roots, it would also provide a place for speakers and entertainment in the square.

 

The Historical Society's Replica Bandstand in the late 1960s

What do you think?