Sandpoint officially seeking applicants for downtown design competition

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Sandpoint City Hall issued the official solicitation notice for its Downtown Waterfront design competition Feb. 21, notifying prospective designers of the opportunity “to join us in transforming our city, from engaging the current synergies of private development, to honoring the wishes of our current community, while embracing the history of this place.”

The competition invites teams of designers to draft proposed concepts to redevelop the Sand Creek waterfront and City Beach, as well as inform the Comprehensive Plan update and future zoning and code changes.

A winning team will be identified in a three-stage selection process, which includes multiple submissions, presentations and reviews.

Submittals will be due by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21. A jury of experts and a panel of technical advisers will make recommendations to the council.

The city in its solicitation notice emphasized that design teams will be asked to create “a vision of what we can become,” though in a series of meetings in January and February honed in on a set of “deliverables” from the process that included estimated construction costs and timelines.

“City Council decided that a design competition is the method by which we will define this VISION that will bind the downtown, the waterfront, and the community into a cohesive whole. We want to leave a legacy for the future of a small town that not only plans for responsible growth but also actively implements the plans, encouraging and supporting both public and private investment consistent with our community values and character,” the city stated in its notice. “Sandpoint has worked incredibly hard over the past 25 years to revitalize our downtown and create all the individual pieces to make Sandpoint extraordinary. We are reaching out to multi-disciplinary Design Teams to assist us in weaving the pieces together to help further define what this place is, and more importantly, what it can be.”

In a revised solicitation manual draft introduced and approved by the City Council at its Feb. 15 meeting, city staff stated that the initial development toward a full master plan would result from the design competition process “and completion of the full plan master plan would likely be a next step with the competition winner,” followed by full construction design of the waterfront as adopted by the council.

Qualified teams will have to provide documentation of “up to five projects” completed within the past 10 years — either collectively or as individuals — and have the professional “capacity necessary for the superb performance of the required services,” according to the manual. “It