Techny Towers Conference & Retreat Center
Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook, Illinois
Taking You to the Right Path
A Word About Us
- Conveniently located on Chicago’s North Shore; 30 minutes from the city or from O’Hare airport.
- Meetings and conferences for nonprofit organizations.
- Meeting rooms for groups from 10 to 200.
- 52 air-conditioned guest rooms with private baths, accommodating 105 guests.
- Separate 22-room Maria House with its own chapel and meeting room.
- Dining services that meet individual and group preferences, including family reunions and celebrations.
- Spiritual and religious retreats and conferences for groups and individuals.
- Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which accommodates 600 for religious services, concerts and other events, and two additional chapels for small groups.
- Spacious and peaceful grounds for reflection, outdoor activities, and summertime picnics.
- Divine Word Missionaries, who established Techny Towers.
Divine Word Missionaries
We are missionaries of the world
Divine Word Missionaries is a Catholic missionary society that works among the poor, the neglected and the disadvantaged in more than 80 countries around the world.
For over a century, our priests and Brothers have helped those in need build a better future. Often their work takes them to lands so remote that services we consider necessities do not exist. There is no electricity or drinkable water. Medicine and doctors are in short supply, if available at all. Education as we know it does not exist.
The work of Divine Word Missionaries is, first and most importantly, to preach the Gospel and share the Word of God. Preaching the Gospel in mission communities is done in many ways.
Sharing Christ through the Word brings comfort to those in need, peace to those in pain and builds vibrant Roman Catholic communities of faith.
Facilities
Guest Rooms
Our guest rooms provide comfortable and quiet accommodations for 130 people in the Towers and Maria House combined. All rooms, single or double, are equipped with individually controlled heating and air conditioning.
We offer two guest room possibilities, and you can choose whichever works for your group and its preferences. Techny Towers’ main building, site of our meeting and dining rooms, includes 52 guest rooms with private baths. Or, you can overnight at Maria House, the guest house on our grounds just a few steps from the main building, which provides another 22 guest rooms.
Dining Rooms
Techny Towers has three dining rooms available for meals during conferences, banquets, receptions, and other special events.
A hospitality room is available to reserve for a comfortable lounge atmosphere. Terrific for socials, parties, or as an informal gathering place for conference attendees after scheduled events have concluded.
Techny Towers’ exclusive in-house caterer, Rent-A-Chef, caters to all occasions, providing buffet or table service, continental breakfasts, boxed lunches, breaks, snacks, and party trays. We pride ourselves on quality, freshness and appealing menus that meet individual and group dining preferences, making everyone feel welcome. Rent-a-Chef can prepare meals to meet any dietary needs. If you will be a guest at Techny Towers, be sure to inform in advance the individual planning your event of your dietary requirements.
Whether yours is a family reunion, celebration, banquet, conference, or retreat, Techny Towers has the dining venue for your group.
Maria House
Groups that want a smaller, personal environment, one that promotes individual interaction as well as centralized activities, will appreciate Maria House, our guest house a few steps away from Techny’s main building. Its 22 single guest rooms provide in-room sink and shared baths, as well as individual air conditioning and heating.
Maria House also offers its own 21 x 25-foot meeting room and private chapel, both of which can help a group focus on its goals.
When it’s time for meals, everyone gathers in Techny’s main dining room and enjoys the delicious dining options in our newly renovated dining rooms.
Chapels
African Chapel
The Africa Chapel, located on the third floor at Techny Towers, seats 60 people and is used often by retreat groups for services. The windows were designed and executed by Brother Ray Albers, SVD.
Brother Ray developed the concept for the windows from the Akan People of Ghana, West Africa, who have long embraced Adinkra symbols as a visual representation of social thought relating to the history, philosophy, and religious beliefs.
The Akan Credo
The Akan believe GYE NYAME, God is the center of all creation. They believe the universe is both a natural and social creation. The Akan also believe human creativity, activity, affects the universe positively and negatively.
The Akan claim the Supreme Being created life and death, and thought death overcame the Supreme Being. However, they believe the Supreme Being had an antidote to death, being able to overcome death. Therefore, the Supreme Being has eternal life, and is spiritual in form and is unburnable, or, indestructible. The Supreme Being puts part of His/Her Spiritual form into human beings, called the soul. The human soul never perishes, and if the human dies the soul is not dead, it lives in the ancestors.
Adinkra Symbols were used for this Chapel because Adinkra symbols compliment Christian symbols, telling us about the spirituality of a people and their culture in relation to ours.
The Human Struggle
Starting at the base of the window, the design begins with the smashing of a chain, freeing the human soul of bondage. The bondage of obsessions and possessions affects not only not only individuals but cultures as well.
The rainbow is a symbol of the hope, shining brighter against darkness. Arising out of disarray, flashes of light dispel darkness, an arm reaches to the benevolent hand of the Supreme Being and Ancestors (on the top of the window) for a favorable solution.
Mother & Child Of The Universe
In contrast to the Human Struggle, the Child in this window is seen reaching upward in a free and playfully manner. Reaching to the top of the window is BRIBI WO SORO, a symbol of hope, God, there is something in the heavens, let it reach me. The window becomes a story of all the living, with emphasis on the Child of the Universe.
African Christ
The back wall of the sanctuary depicts the African Divine Word to be in one window, and the window adjacent, the Divine Word Missionaries logo and African flags of the countries we mission to.
Flags
Adjacent to the African Word is the window of the Divine Word Missionaries mission in Africa. The Divine Word Missionaries carry the Gospel to many cultures. Our Divine Word logo and the African map is encircled in HENE carrying its own proverb, “The World Is Our Parish.” Below are 11 African flags of the various countries the missionaries serve. Their brilliant colors represent; Angola, Benin, Botswana, Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.
Potter
The role of the potter is both Biblical and cultural. The symbol SANKOFA, and its proverb, you can always undo mistakes, echos the Judeo/Christian encounter between Yahweh and Jeremiah, a lesson in undoing mistakes; “go to the potter where clay pots and jars are made. I did as Yahweh told me and found the potter at the wheel. But the jar he was forming didn’t turn out as he wished, so he kneaded into a lump and started all over again.” The Lord said, “can’t I do to you as the potter has done to the clay? As clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in my hands.”
Weaver
The symbol, KOROYE, along with its proverb, unity in strength, is in a setting of a pensive weaver working in ancestral patterns on the loom. The weaver is aware of KONTIRE NE AKWAN, one head does not make a council. A single thread in one’s life is not strong, but when all of life’s threads are woven together, it has strength and unity.
Holy Spirit Chapel
The Chapel of the Holy Spirit is not available for baptism, first communion, chrism, or weddings, but it is available for funerals, memorials, and other special services. The Chapel also hosts concerts and musical events and can seat 700 people.
St. Arnold Janssen Chapel
The St. Arnold Janssen Chapel, located on the right of the main altar in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, is dedicated to St. Arnold Janssen, founder of the Society of the Divine Word.
The window to the left depicts St. Arnold inviting two young men to consider bringing the Faith to peoples around the globe. Inviting young men and women and enabling them to become missionaries were the driving ideals of St. Arnold for the last thirty-five years of his life.
The obvious holiness and zeal of Arnold Janssen is what moved Pope John Paul II to declare him a saint on October 5, 2003. His feast day is celebrated on January 15th.
The chapel was renovated in 2007 and seats 60 people. It is often used by retreat groups for services, as well as for memorial masses, daily mass and other services.