Berwyn Municipal Building

Illinois, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The Berwyn Municipal Building in Berwyn, Illinois, completed in 1939 as a Public Works Administration project, exemplifies the distinctive PWA Moderne style championed during the New Deal era. Designed by the architectural firm Burnham & Hammond, the structure features square massing, a flat brick and limestone exterior, and characteristically streamlined prism-shaped pilasters with reeding above the entrance—details that may reflect either the firm's earlier design work or the influence of Czech Cubism, given the city's significant Czech-American community. Originally a multipurpose civic center housing the city government, library, police and fire departments, the building underwent a 1991 addition to provide elevator access under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The police department relocated in the 1960s and the library branch closed in the 1980s, though city offices and the fire department remained operational there into the 21st century. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.