Rosewood Beach Redesign Heads to Park Board for Approval

In a small conference room at in early June, six men talk about going to the beach. 

It's a Task Force meeting, and right now the group of Highland Park residents that includes three architects and a landscape architect is intensely discussing what kind of material the boardwalk should be constructed from. Steve Sider, an architect, argues in favor of using wood for the Rosewood Beach boardwalk.

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"It's the most natural material," he says. Though he acknowledges splinters wouldn't happen with a material like concrete, he calls wood the more pleasant of the two.

Edmond Zisook, the group's second architect, is not so sure. A lengthy, sometimes heated conversation ensues before the group agrees on wood. 

Then it's a question of what kind of wood, and how hard or soft it should be. That's when Park District Executive Director Liza McElroy suggests a road trip.

"We truly would like to take a little road trip to a marina to look at the cedar wood there," McElroy says. "This is a pretty big decision."

For the task force, it's one of many.

A changing landscape

The group has met regularly for the past year with a construction manager and architects David Woodhouse and Andy Tinucci to come up with a Rosewood Beach redesign that will be presented to the Park Board on Thursday evening. 

If the board approves, the plan will make it way through the city's commissions before landing on the agenda for the

Assuming the council signs off on it, the plan assembled by this mix of Highland Park residents will eventually be what the rest of the community sees at the city's only swimming beach.

The Park District has from the community online and through public meetings in an attempt to assemble a plan that could most accurately fit the city's taste. The effort seems to have mostly paid off. While many people are opposed to one building in the task force's plan -- -- even those opponents support the rest of what the task force has come up with.

"We like the plan," Ravinia Neighbors Association publicity director Doug Purington . "We're fully in support of the entire concept, without the interpretive center."

A sticking point

That one exception, however, has remained a sticking point throughout the process. RNA recently objected to the task force's plan at a City Council meeting, and has been collecting signatures from residents opposed to the interpretive center since the building was first announced.

"There is strong support for the project in the community as we have seen," wrote task force member and RNA vice-president Eve Tarm in an email she passed onto Patch. "We do have to acknowledge the fact that there is strong opposition to one part of this project--the interpretive center."

Tarm was the sole task force member who voted against that will be presented to the park board. Meanwhile, residents

How will Highland Parkers use the beach?

Meanwhile, City Council members like Paul Frank have

"The Park Board has done a great job seeking public input and discussing the project and being very open with their process," Frank said.

According to task force chairman Dave Fairman, the attempt at inclusiveness was no accident. The task force has tried to appeal to all types of Highland Park beach goers since the beginning.

"It's not just, 'I grew up in New Jersey and we have boardwalks there,'" Fairman explained about the design process. "We've kept in mind how Highland Parkers use that beach."

But how Highland Parkers use Rosewood Beach will inevitably change if this redesign takes place. In addition to the boardwalk and the interpretive center, there will also be viewing areas, a concession stand and bathrooms. Though the beach currently closes at dusk, the possibility of adding lights along the boardwalk may lead to later hours.

A range of opinions

According to Woodhouse, it's typical to see a wide range of opinions for a project like Rosewood, both from the community and within the task force.

"Every time you do a project like this, the opinions range from don't do anything… to completely transform it," he said. "What you're trying to do is get the best outcome for everyone."

Woodhouse told Patch that the discussion about the wood and the lights on the boardwalk was typical of a task force meeting, of which he said there have been around 10.

"That was a working meeting, that's like watching the sausage made," Woodhouse said. He was glad to see heated discussion about the design. "When people just sit there and say, 'whatever,' that's when you get worried."

What's made Rosewood a tough project to design is the range of experiences people expect when they go to the beach. As Woodhouse explained, if you go to the beach alone you may not be looking for the same experience you would expect if you went with your family. 

"You have to be really wide-ranging about how you define experience," the architect said. "You're trying to square so many circles."

Or, as Park Board member Elaine Waxman put it while watching the conversation heat up at the June 4 task force meeting:"Everyone's got their own ideas."

The task force will present the finished plan to the Park Board on Thursday at West Ridge Center. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.

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