Glenview, IL

The Glen occupies the former Naval Air Station at the geographic center of Glenview. When the base closed in 1995, the village took the master-developer role for the 1,028-acre property, held over 180 public meetings, and approved a reuse plan in 1998. The resulting district combines housing, offices, shops, a school, cultural sites, recreation, and commuter rail on former military ground. Its main public landscape is 142-acre Gallery Park, where a 45-acre stormwater lake shares the site with walking paths, athletic fields, the Park Center community complex, and Attea Middle School. Kohl Children's Museum and The Glen Town Center sit nearby, while the Glen of North Glenview station serves Metra's Milwaukee District North line, with trains toward Chicago Union Station and Fox Lake.

ATTRDavid Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA / CC BY 2.0

The air station's influence reached far beyond the village. The Navy bought Curtiss-Reynolds Airport in 1937, and during World War II Naval Air Station Glenview became its largest primary flight-training facility. Nearly 9,000 aviation cadets trained there, and over 17,000 pilots qualified for carrier landings on two converted Lake Michigan steamers. The older village had incorporated in 1899 after residents sought faster provision of sidewalks and water service. Glenview's 2020 census population was 48,705. Together, the incorporation story and the base conversion account for two distinct civic landscapes: an older center built around road and rail crossings and a planned district created across the former airfield. Older downtown Glenview forms an L around Glenview and Waukegan roads.

ATTRDavid K. Staub / CC BY 3.0

Waukegan is a broad regional arterial, while Glenview Road has smaller blocks interrupted by the West Fork of the Chicago River and the rail line. The downtown Glenview Metra station serves the Milwaukee District North line and connects with Pace buses and Amtrak. Together with Glen of North Glenview, it gives the village rail stops in both its historic center and The Glen. In July 2026, the five-story Cerca building opened downtown with 62 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. That month, the village approved the purchase of a Glenview Road property for a future pedestrian plaza; the public space remained planned. Farther west, Glenbrook Hospital brings cardiovascular, neuroscience, orthopaedic, and oncology services to Pfingsten Road, creating a medical campus apart from either rail-centered district.

ATTRZol87 from Chicago, Illinois, USA / CC BY-SA 4.0

Historic Wagner Farm preserves a piece of the landscape that preceded suburban Glenview. The Wagner family farmed its property from the early twentieth century until 1997, and a 1998 referendum allowed the park district to preserve it as a working and interpretive farm. The site still includes crops, livestock, a 1920s farmhouse, and agricultural programs. In 2026, the Glenview Farmers Market returned to Wagner Farm on Saturdays from June through October, with local growers, nonprofit tables, and musicians. The downtown public library adds year-round programs and an Innovation Center on Glenview Road. The farmers market occupies a working farm on Saturdays; the library runs year-round programs in the older center, and paths circle Lake Glenview on land where Navy cadets once trained.