$7.2 Million State-Of-The-Art, Zero-Emission Evanston Animal Shelter Opens For Adoptions
EVANSTON, IL — Following more than five years of preparations, the state and local officials last week celebrated the opening of the new Evanston Animal Shelter.
The 8,800-square-foot new facility, located on the site of the previous shelter, now has more space, better amenities and a more humane environment for the animals it houses. The shelter can now hold 24 dogs and up to 45 cats — twice the capacity of the old 2,800-square-foot building that dated back to the 1980s.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said he was proud to announce that the new shelter is a "net-zero" building. Designed with room for solar panels and intended for future LEED certification, it is the city's first building without any on-site carbon emissions.
"The mission of this organization is one that this community is deeply, deeply passionate about," Biss said. "This is a community that is passionate about animal welfare, passionate about animals, and it's a community that's passionate about the people who do that work as well."
The total cost of the project came in at $7.2 million — more than $818 per square foot — with about half of that covered by the city.
Cook County chipped in with a $2.9 million grant, and city officials agreed to require that the shelter accept animals from unincorporated portions of the northern Cook County suburbs. The rest was covered by private donations.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday featured a ceremonial "cookie-breaking," with Biss, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle sharing a piece of a giant dog treat with Zeus, a former shelter resident.
The Evanston Animal Shelter Association, the nonprofit that operates the shelter, began a fundraising campaign to replace the outdated and overcrowded facility. Its volunteers had long raised concerns about the cramped conditions, with cats kept in cages in the laundry room, dogs struggling in small kennels and those looking to adopt new pets made to meet them in the bathroom.
Vicky Pasenko, the executive director of the shelter and the association's co-founder, described the new building's opening as an amazing homecoming following two years of shelter operations in temporary facilities.
"Watching this beautiful building go from a dream, to plans on a piece of paper, to a video based on an artist's rendering, and now to this lovely facility has been the experience of a lifetime," Pasenko said. "I'll try not to cry."
The old shelter was demolished in late 2022, and construction on the new shelter began officially in June 2023. The project was delayed, reportedly due to supply chain disruptions and the requirements of LEED environmental sustainability certification. During construction, dogs were housed in the city's former recycling center, while cats were relocated to a temporary facility on South Boulevard.
"This is the first time we've been in a building that was built for the purpose of being a modern animal shelter, and that results in a more stress-free environment for the animals, helping us prepare them better for the lives they will have once they leave us," Pasenko said.
The new shelter has its own medical suite to allow for on-site veterinary care, eliminating the need for stressful trips to vets, which previously took time away from other activities.
"The vet we use most often is in Northbrook, so you have no idea how many trips we make every week to Northbrook and back with animals," she said. "It's stressful for them, and it cuts into the time that we have to do other things, so that's going to be so helpful."
The medical suite is expected to start offering on-site spaying and neutering by early next year.
The shelter also has isolation rooms for sick animals, new "get acquainted" rooms, a pet pantry for supplies and space for a custodial program to allow the shelter to temporarily care for pets displaced by emergencies like house fires and hospital stays.
The new animal shelter is officially open to the public for adoptions starting Saturday.
"I have pictured this day in my head a thousand times," Pasenko said at the ribbon cutting, "and it was never better than it is right now."
