News

07.20.2004

Background and Timeline of the
Architect Selection Process

1. April 15, 2004: The Board of Trustees approved a process for architect selection and appointed a Facility Committee of: Cheryl Chase (chair), Michele Macauda, William Cibes, Richard Gray, Robert Henry, and Len Wolman.

2. May 21, 2004: Request for Qualifications was publicly advertised in newspapers and on web-sites and mailed to a list of architectural firms, compiled from several sources.

3. June 18, 2004: 43 architecture firms responded by submitting Statements of Qualifications.

4. July 2, 2004: The Facility Committee met with Architecture Advisor Robert A.M. Stern and CTCSE staff to review and discuss the submissions – having previously reviewed the submissions, and having received the Architectural Advisor’s and staff’s comments on the competitiveness of the submissions.

• The result of the July 2 discussion was the selection of eight of the 43 firms as the most appropriate to this project and the most competitive in the pool, and the first to be interviewed.

5. July 15, 2004: The Facility Committee interviewed eight firms and selected four finalists to continue to Phase II of the process – a more formal Request for Proposals and a modified design competition – due in mid-September.

6. The four selected firms will present to the public, stakeholders and the Committee in the week of September 20.

7. The Facility Committee will recommend an architect team to the Board at the Board’s September 24 meeting. The final selection of the architect firm and team will be made by the Board of Trustees, based on the following criteria:

• Responsiveness to the CTCSE goals (including ideas, writing, renderings and models submitted).
• Responsiveness to the financial resources available and timeline goals.
• Experience of the firm and team assembled.
• Ability to work together with the CTCSE Board and staff, stakeholders, community, the exhibit designer, the consulting museum planners, and subsequently, the builder.
  • The Statements of Qualifications submitted on June 18, the written proposals and preliminary designs to be submitted in mid-September, the interviews conducted on July 15 and mid-September, the presentations on or about September 20, and the checking of references of prior important and relevant work, will all provide the information to be applied to the criteria stated above

8. The CTCSE has utilized considerable expertise available to it from the Architectural Advisor, Robert A.M. Stern, Dean, School of Architecture, Yale University, University of Connecticut, Connecticut State University System, the Office of Policy and Management, The Capital City Economic Development Authority, as well as Urban Designer, Ken Greenberg, and the City of Hartford.

9. The four finalist firms attended a comprehensive briefing on July 16 to help them prepare to respond to the Request for Proposals.

10. Throughout the process to date the Center has been contacting significant stakeholders and soliciting their input on key factors the building must address.

11. The Center has asked each of the four finalists to address in their proposals the issue of public and stakeholder engagement throughout the design process.

12. While the selected proposal will assist in moving the design forward, it is unlikely that the new science center will be built precisely as envisioned in this phase. It is fully expected that once an architect is selected and under contract, the actual design of the building will be through a participatory process from October 2004 through September 2005.