With the skill of the Resident Engineer and the vision of a Design Technician, Civiltech is providing Construction Engineering services on an exciting park project with unique aesthetic features. The 90 North Park – Stage 2 Project is a section of a larger park system bringing green space and recreational opportunities to the 90 North District and being administered by an enthusiastic Construction Engineering team.
The Village of Schaumburg is transforming the area located north of the Jane Addams (I-90) Tollway into a dynamic regional destination called 90 North District. This future mixed-use, walkable, urban center will provide an entertainment and recreational hub for residents as well as new commercial and residential opportunities. 
This project is a section of park area that is adjacent to the recently completed 90 North Park Shared Street. In addition to the amenities the new park will provide, the shared street provides additional parking and acts as a gateway to the area, blurring the line between the park and the roadway and creating a flexible space that can easily transition into an extension of the park by closing it off to vehicular traffic during Village festivals and events. Civiltech previously provided Construction Engineering on the shared street as well as design services including Landscape Architecture and Water Resources.
The park area currently being constructed contains walking paths, green space, and water features. A water plaza anchors the park’s fluid features, where visitors can follow the sound of a wallfall and comb weir feature, cross the shallow runnels that carry water through the plaza on an accessible path, and cool off in an interactive mister plaza on a warm afternoon. Stormwater runoff is managed through a picturesque bioswale created from gravel and decorative boulders to resemble a riverbed. The bioswale is surrounded by native plantings suitable for the damp environment. The park’s green spaces provide flexible gathering opportunities and picnic tables. Tilted lawn spaces and valley paths add visual movement to the park’s green space, guiding visitors toward flexible gathering areas connected by a pedestrian bridge crossing the bioswale. Weathered steel elements, used in retaining walls, planters, and the bioswale bridge crossing, bring a warm, durable material consistency that ties the park’s many distinct spaces together.
Civiltech’s Construction Engineering team, led by Phil Hurst alongside Ryan Doles and Omar Tobon, worked closely together, skillfully administering many critical aesthetic features and ensuring ADA compliant access throughout the park, including inspection of walkway slopes and verification of plan grades across the site’s excavations and sloping surfaces.
Phil and Ryan previously worked together on the adjacent 90 North Park Shared Street, bringing their combined expertise and working knowledge of the development’s infrastructure to the park project. They are both highly skilled in infrastructure construction and complex project administration, and that shared expertise carried directly into the park’s construction. Phil focused on the project’s high-level decisions and direction, while Ryan led the day-to-day coordination, RFIs, and on-site problem-solving that kept the work moving. Omar, meanwhile, brought an artistic, design-trained perspective to the effort, softening and coordinating the park’s aesthetic features and landscaping layout.
Omar’s site design outlook helped shape many of the park’s most distinctive features. He was closely involved in the placement of the decorative boulders used for border walls and general park aesthetics, considering sightlines and views for each individual placement. He also coordinated the installation of the steppingstone path, monitoring stone placement to ensure the spacing and drop between each stone matched the plan drawings and verifying the details in the field one stone at a time. Omar and Ryan handled all coordination and decision-making on these features alongside Todd Wenger, the Village of Schaumburg’s Landscape and Design Planner, and the project design team from Site Design Group, Ltd. 
Ryan and Omar’s hands-on administration extended across nearly every visual detail of the park, from the field verification of individual boulder and stone placements to the many raised walkways and varied surfaces throughout the site. ADA compliance remained a central focus throughout construction, requiring extensive inspection of slopes, plan grades, and excavation work across the park’s sloping surfaces.
The 90 North District is an exciting and visionary project, and Civiltech is grateful to our client, the Village of Schaumburg, for the opportunity to be a part of it. The park project is an example of the flexibility and vision of our Construction Engineering team ensuring this project receives the high-level care, design sensibilities, and hands-on construction administration required for the unique and outstanding aesthetics as well as an overall successful project outcome.