Oak Park is seeking community input for its Percy Julian streetscape design on Chicago Avenue between East Avenue and Austin Boulevard, a gesture intended to honor African-American scientist Percy Julian.
The village is hosting four meetings over the next couple of weeks to inform residents about the project, offer more information about Julian and receive feedback on design ideas. Anyone is welcome to attend.
These meetings, all with the same presentation and structure, will take place at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at William Beye Elementary School at 230 N. Cuyler Ave., at 7 p.m. Jan. 30 at John Greenleaf Whittier School at 715 N. Harvey Ave., at 7 p.m. Feb. 4 at Beye School and at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 at Whittier School.
The overall cost or funding for this streetscape project has not yet been determined. Those decisions will have to come back to the village board after the design team narrows its ideas and community feedback into one proposal.
Oak Park’s village board also separately decided last December to set aside $1 million in its fiscal year 2025 budget for the preservation of Julian’s home at 515 N. East Ave., where his daughter, Faith Julian, still lives.
During the Dec. 3, 2024, village board meeting, trustees hired Planning Resources, Inc. to develop the streetscape design, costing the village up to $150,000. The idea of a streetscape to honor Julian’s legacy was brought up during a meeting in May.
“[It’s] vitally important to make sure we get as much input and as much feedback … as that process moves forward,” said James Prescott, president of the Prescott Group LLC, who Planning Resources is partnering with during the design phase, along with TERRA Engineering, Ltd.
Jennifer Kelliher, senior landscape architect from Planning Resources, said the community meetings are designed to be informational and to collect input.
“We’re going to find out just what the community knows about who Dr. Percy Julian is,” added Darrell Garrison, president of Planning Resources. “We hope this to be a project that educates the community.”
Who is Percy Julian?
Julian, an accomplished chemist and entrepreneur, was not only a pioneer in science who did groundbreaking work, Kelliher pointed out, but also had roots in activism and a strong personal character.
“It is such an impactful life, that the way we that we tell the story, we think, is very integral to this project,” she said. “It’s not just the physical elements of the streetscape, we’re really trying to honor his legacy.”
Julian was the grandson of slaves in Alabama and received a poor primary education, yet went on to become one of the most impactful scientists of our times, Kelliher said. His work led to the development of hormonal birth control, synthetic cortisone, treatment for glaucoma and even firefighting foam.
He was outspoken against racism, segregation and antisemitism. Julian also paid forward the opportunities he received by hiring many African-American and women chemists.
And Julian refused to move his family, one of the first African-American families in Oak Park, after his home was attacked.
“He was faced with adversity time and time again and he rose above it,” Kelliher said.
The streetscape
The designers are looking to create the streetscape on Chicago Avenue between Austin Boulevard and East Avenue where the Julian home is located. It’ll be a physical space to celebrate Julian’s legacy.
“Despite his boundary-breaking accomplishments, Dr. Percy L. Julian is largely unrecognized,” the project presentation reads. “The Dr. Percy Julian Streetscape project seeks to honor his legacy, provide a brand and identity for the district, and facilitate economic development to build meaningful capacity around organizations of the district.”
The project will take place in three phases: understand, explore and realize, Kelliher explained. Listening to community input, researching Julian’s life and examining the site for the streetscape is all part of the understand phase.
Next, the design team will collaborate on ideas to create three concepts and narrow them down to one final concept with the community’s and stakeholder’s input.
The streetscape could have gateways, banners, placemaking nodes, wayfinding signage, art or other meaningful features.
“We have our standard bucket of site feature amenities, but it felt like it wasn’t enough to do him justice,” she said.
So, beyond that, Kelliher added, they might incorporate an outdoor exhibit with interactive technology.
That could look like augmented reality features, similar to Pokémon Go, where a visitor holds up their phone and sees something pop up in the physical environment. It could be text, images, animation, or a voiceover. It could even be a game or scavenger hunt activity where visitors can learn even more about Julian.
Brandon Crawford, deputy director of development services, said the design proposal will likely come back to the village board sometime later this summer. Depending on the scale of the project and board approval, he said the village hopes to include this in the capital improvement plan for 2026 or 2027.
