College Builds $26M Concert Hall, Fine Arts Center

NAPERVILLE, IL-North Central College plans to break ground this spring on a 57,000-sf, $26.5-million concert hall and fine arts center in this western suburb’s downtown. About half of the available dates are expected to be used by groups from outside the college, according to consultants hired by the college.

A 13,000-sf, 605-seat concert hall will be built at Ellsworth Street and Chicago Avenue. It is designed by Talaske Group Inc., which consulted on the acoustics at Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The fine arts center will include a 150-seat experimental theater that can double as a dance studio.

Gifts totaling nearly $10 million from North Central College graduate Dr. Myron Wentz is helping pay for the concert hall, which will be named in his honor, and fine arts center. Plans have been in the works for 15 years, but stalled by a 1996 flood. The college put the fine arts center plans on hold while repairing its athletic facilities.