Records of the Evanston/University Research Park

The Records of the Evanston/University Research Park, filling five boxes (including one half-sized box) document the planning, proposal, and site-purchase stages of the project. The materials reflect two stages of the project, with roughly two-thirds dating between 1984 and 1989 and one-third between 1994 and 1996.

Records fall generally into the following categories: meeting materials; architectural, engineering and conceptual planning documents; purchase and closing documents, and progress reports.

Meeting materials include both Steering Committee meeting minutes, with accompanying documents, and Board of Directors' meeting agendas. Steering Committee minutes date from 1985 to 1994 with the bulk of these dating from 1985 to 1987; Board of Directors' meeting agendas date between 1995 and 1996.

Architectural and engineering and conceptual planning studies, dating from 1986, include correspondence addressing knowledge of any hazardous waste previously existing on the site. A 1989 survey plat describes the 18 parcels of land in Evanston comprising the Evanston/University Research Park site.

The purchase of the parcels is documented in several sets of purchase agreements, development, and closing documents. These documents date from 1987 and 1996.

Reports—mostly internal—date between 1986 and 1994 and include “An Economic Development Proposal,” a report to the Mayor and City Council of Evanston by the Evanston/University Research Park Environmental Affairs Oversight Committee, a report on the proposed infrastructure technology institute at Northwestern University called “Keeping America on the Move,” a progress report from 1992 containing background, progress, next steps and appendices to support statements in the report, a report on potential corporate contacts from 1993, and a briefing paper on the Office of Institutional Relations from 1994.