EVANSTON NOW
by Bill Smith
October 27, 2022
Northlight Theatre officials persuaded Evanston’s Land Use Commission Wednesday night to recommend approval of changes to the planned building’s front façade — citing soaring costs for building materials as the reason for the change.
Northlight’s architect, Craig Smith, said that since the design for the theater at 1012-1016 Church St. downtown was approved by the city in 2019, supply chain issues created by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have dramatically increased the cost of many building supplies, and “glass prices have just skyrocketed.”
The original design, Smith said, called for two layers of glass across the front façade. “We came to the conclusion,” he added, “that we wanted a simpler façade that would let people look into the lobby and see what’s there.”