Hillenbrand's Folly

Hillenbrand's Folly Originally uploaded by jlwilley.

I had an opportunity last week to tour the headquarters of the American Dental Association in Chicago. During our tour we were shown a historic picture of the headquarters taken while it was being built. The building is located at 211 E. Chicago Avenue. You can literally throw a baseball from the front door of the 22-story ADA Building and hit the historic Chicago Water Tower on a couple of bounces.

When the ADA Headquarters was being constructed it was one of the very first skyscrapers built north of the Chicago River. They called the building "Hillenbrand's Folly" after Dr. Harold Hillenbrand, the Executive Director of the ADA at that time.

Here's the point! Can you imagine anyone today calling this Gold Coast landmark someone's "folly?" I think not. It stands today as a testament to the vision of a great dental association leader.

The lesson that struck me while I was visiting the ADA is that you can't judge "vision" in the present. Leadership and vision must be tempered with time and perspective.

The Village of Elburn has an excellent vision that guides our development decisions. We are trying to build a compact interconnected community centered on an existing downtown and a future Metra Station. We also want to use our wetland boundaries to form a natural border around our town that defines our outer limits. We always choose to pursue opportunities that favor the creation of a "community of people," not just of buildings. Furthermore, we never rush development decisions, and we always focus on making this community "Better, and not just Bigger."

This vision has served us well over the past eight years. However, I believe that we are going to be tested in the next few weeks. We are going to have to make a difficult decision concerning the initial temporary access route to our Metra facility.

Do we compromise our vision to accomodate the land speculators that control the property around Metra? Or, do we stay true to our ideals and make the hard decision. One that we know will be inconvenient in the short term, but will greatly benefit our community in the long run? Time will tell, but I believe it will be our "folly" if we allow ourselves to be manipulated and to rush things now.