Request for Qualifications Duwamish Waterway Park Background and Description of the Planning Project Owned by the City of Seattle & King County and managed by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department, Duwamish Waterway Park is located at 7900 10th Ave S in Seattle. The South Park Area Redevelopment Committee (SPARC) has recently received a ‘Small and Simple’ grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to hire a landscape architect to engage with the community, identify ways to better ‘activate’ the park, and come up with a schematic plan. The main features of the park are its open green space, its native and riparian plantings, its view of the Duwamish River and its hand-carry boat launch. As Seattle’s only neighborhood with a direct connection to a river, the Duwamish is a strong part of South Park’s identity. This park is one of the few places where one can walk down to the water within the neighborhood, and as such, we are looking for a design approach that places a high priority on the unique aspects of a riverfront park. It also has: • Benches and picnic tables • Interpretive signage • BBQ’s • Perimeter walkways with porous and soft surface walkways (recently installed with the SDOT Neighborhood Park and Street Fund) • Limited play amenities (recently installed by Parks with the SDOT Neighborhood Park and Street Fund) Recent public planning through the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition’s Healthy Communities program (2013) and Seattle Parks Foundation’s South Park Green Spaces Vision Plan (2014) have identified Duwamish Waterway Park as a key open space in the community in need of improvement. Current regular users are the Duwamish Rowing Club, who put their boats in at the park’s beach, dog walkers, BBQ-ers, and families/groups who play on the open lawn. Events are regularly held on the open lawn – from the Duwamish Alive! Clean ups twice a year (attracting volunteers from around Puget Sound), to the annual South Park Gay Pride Picnic, to the Duwamish River Festival, to a very lively informal gathering on Fourth of July. The park is one of very few greenspaces in South Park – a neighborhood with far less open spaces per capita than most others in the city. Unfortunately the park attracts a lot of unsavory behavior that puts folk ill-atease, especially our seniors and our youth. There is a strong interest from the community to create amenities at the park to attract more positive usage and deter the more negative uses. The recent public involvement processes have identified a need for places for older children to play and seniors to exercise and yet retain the natural character of the park. South Park is a unique neighborhood – the 2010 census identified it as the most diverse in all of Seattle. Many households do not speak English as a first language – Spanish, Cambodian, and Vietnamese are common. The neighborhood also has more children per capita than any other city neighborhood. We are a working class neighborhood, full of families working hard to support ourselves and surrounded by small businesses and large industrial operations alike. South Park is also home to a rich community of artists – from musicians to sculptors -- who take advantage of the affordable spaces to make their work. Our Neighborhood Center, a block from the park, is home to a food bank and senior center, as well as the offices and meeting place for the Neighborhood Association and SPARC. This diversity – age, language, nationality, economic means, and education level – makes South Park a richly dynamic community, but also an especially complicated place to do outreach.
For more information on South Park and our open spaces, refer to the South Park Green Spaces Vision Plan: https://seattleparksfoundation.org/2014-pages/step-up/south-park-green-spaces
Request for Qualifications Duwamish Waterway Park
Public Involvement Our goal is to engage the community in the entire process: From the visioning stage, to the design stage, to the building stage and to the maintenance stage. With the participation of the community throughout the process, it creates an ownership of the final product, and empowers the people to be more protective of the thing they helped create. The public process will comply with the Seattle Parks Department public involvement policy (See http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/Policy/PIP.pdf). We anticipate holding a series of three (3) public meetings along with informal small group meetings and other public involvement strategies. The consultant will be needed to conduct the public meetings. Outreach will need to be tailored to our diverse community and may require additional efforts and accommodations to gather information from community members who do not regularly attend meetings nor speak English. It is the job of the consulting landscape architect to work with the neighborhood via the Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee (a group of stakeholders and interested community members) to assess the possibilities and feasibility of various uses and develop a conceptual design. To be successful, this design must be able to provide value to a diverse group of park visitors. Process and Scope of Work The Neighborhood Matching Grant is $25,000 with $21,000 available for the preparation of the conceptual design and a preliminary construction cost estimate. All of the work for this conceptual design phase is to be completed within this budget and within a nine-month time frame. There will be extensive community involvement to determine the desired new uses for the park. The alternatives presented and final preferred plan should include rough order of magnitude cost estimates for development. The final plan will need to be approved by both SPARC and Seattle Parks and Recreation. Meetings with the Steering Committee are to be held throughout the planning process. Public involvement is critical for this project. There are to be several preliminary design concepts prepared based on the site analysis, input from community meetings, the Steering Committee, Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation staff and Department of Neighborhoods staff. There will be a series of 3 public meetings where community input will be gathered and the schematic design options presented. The landscape architect will work with the steering committee to determine the appropriate outreach techniques for engaging the community-- both for the public meetings and for the non-traditional outreach. The landscape architect is expected to incorporate feedback from these public meetings into the design, as well as address the needs and concerns of Seattle Parks and Recreation. Regular meetings with the steering committee and Seattle Parks & Recreation are anticipated. These and other details of work scope and process are described in the project schedule. We are interested in a landscape architect who: Has practical experience doing outreach in diverse, multi-lingual communities Has experience designing municipal parks and open spaces o experience with Seattle Parks and Recreation is a plus o experience designing playgrounds and/or natural play spaces is a plus o experience on waterfront projects is a plus Has experience planning projects with volunteer groups Has experience working on designs that have a limited budget Is creative in the use of small space Is creative in the design of a space for multi-generational users
Request for Qualifications Duwamish Waterway Park Proposed Schedule At this point we anticipate a public process composed of a number of elements within the following approximate time frame:
Step/Activity 01. Develop and advertise RFQ for design consultant services 02. Negotiate and sign design consultant contract
Responsible Person/Group Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee
Month Done February-March
Year Done 2016
Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee
March
2016
03. Hire project coordinator
Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee SPARC
Late February
2016
04. Finalize Outreach Plan
Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee
Early March
2016
05. Outreach at various community events
Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee
March
2016
06. Public meeting 1
Design consultant/ Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee Design consultant/ Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee/ Seattle Parks and Rec Design consultant/ Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee Design consultant/Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee / Seattle Parks and Rec Design consultant/Duwamish Waterway Park Steering Committee Design consultant
April
2016
Mid-June
2016
July
2016
Mid-August
2016
September
2016
October
2016
SPARC, South Park Green Spaces Committee, Seattle Parks Foundation
October
2016
07. Review draft design and construction documents with Seattle Parks and Rec Parks Review Panel 08. Public meeting 2
09. Review draft design and construction documents with Seattle Parks and Rec
10. Public meeting 3
11. Design and construction documents finalized 12. Develop and begin implementing fundraising plan for construction phase
Request for Qualifications Duwamish Waterway Park Submittal Contents Submittals shall contain the following information: Proposal: 12 page faces maximum. Cover page not counted toward page limitation. Profile of the firm, including number of employees, location, number of years in business, relevant experience, and identification of any sub-consultants. Description of your project understanding and your approach to satisfying the requirements of the scope. Qualification of the team as it relates to this project, including: Resumes of the project manager and key staff assigned to work on the project. Description of similar recent projects completed, including year completed, how well the project met the scope, timeline, budget, construction cost, references, and owner’s representative contact information. Examples of effective collaboration with community groups and public agencies, facilitation of community meetings and workshops, and consultations with volunteer committees. At least two professional references (including contact information) for similar projects. Response Due Date: March 4th, by 4:00 PM Please send an electronic copy of your response to: Meredith Hall, SPARC Board President: sparc.prez@gmail.com Questions should be directed to Meredith Hall sparc.prez@gmail.com or Pamela Kliment, Seattle Parks and Recreation (206) 684-7556 Technical assistance for this community-driven project is provided by Pamela Kliment, Seattle Parks & Recreation, and Ed Pottharst, Department of Neighborhoods.