A Design Team Search for the Pierscape at Navy Pier RFQ
Sponsor: Navy Pier, Inc. Type of competition: RFQ, three-stage Language: English Location: Chicago Eligibility: Qualified design teams Registration Fee: None Jury: CHAIRMAN Ms. Sarah Garvey – Retired, The Boeing Company John G. Shedd Aquarium
VICE-CHAIRMAN Mr. Pat Daly – The Daly Group LLC
SECRETARY/TREASURER Ms. Andrea Zopp – The Chicago Urban League
EX-OFFICIO Mr. David Mosena – The Museum of Science and Industry
EX-OFFICIO Mr. James R. Reilly – Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority Mr. Marc Brooks – MKMB Corporation
Ms. Nora Daley Conroy – Chicago Metropolis 2020
Mr. Roberto Herencia – BXM Holdings Inc.
Ms. Donna LaPietra – Kurtis Productions, LTD.
Mr. Terry Peterson – The Chicago Transit Authority
Mr. John Schmidt – Mayer Brown LLP
Mr. Kurt Summers – The Cook County Board of Commissioners
Mr. Kelly R. Welsh – The Northern Trust Company
Ms. Marilynn K. Gardner – CEO and General Manager Awards: Design teams invited to Phase III (5 teams) will each receive a stipend of $50,000 Timeline: Phase I: 15 September 2011 – Online Pre-submittal meeting 20 September 2011 – Notification of Intent to Participate due 22 September 2011 – Last day for written questions 29 September 2011 – Last response date for answers 06 October 2011 – Design team portfolio and qualifications due 20 October 2011 – Shortlisted design teams notified (10 teams selected)
Phase II: 10 November 2011 – Design team organization and approach due Phase III: 24 January 2012 – Design proposals and fee estimates due Design challenge: Navy Pier provides the opportunity for a Design Team to have a profound impact on one of the most important and visible public places in Chicago. The Pier is the most popular attraction in Chicago, drawing nearly nine million visitors annually. Design Teams interested in participating in this search process should be comprised of representatives from landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, communication and graphic design, lighting design, art curation, engineering, and other relevant disciplines. These self-organized teams will be asked to submit creative solutions for the Pier’s public realm. The search will culminate with the selection in early 2012 of designers to work with Navy Pier to implement a new design for the Pierscape.
The Pierscape Design Team search is an important part of a larger Navy Pier initiative entitled The Centennial Vision, the goal of which is to make Navy Pier a truly iconic and world-class destination. As the Pier approaches its centennial, now is the time to look at future possibilities for the Pier. It is important to preserve the heritage of the “People’s Pier” while refreshing and improving its public spaces. We are confident that the framework that we have put together is visionary, practical, and achievable. The Pierscape design should follow suit so that it is inspirational, feasible, and gets built.
Submission requirements: Unless noted otherwise, all material submitted in response to this RFP should be done as 8½” X 11” PDF’s uploaded digitally to the Pierscape RFP website, navypiervision.com/rfp. Design Teams should provide a thorough submittal using the guidelines presented herein. Submittals should be straightforward and concise. |
SWA/Balsley Wins Paveletskaya Plaza Landscape Competition 
Aerial view at night – courtesy SWA/Balsley 5+ Design
Of the nine railway stations in Moscow, Paveletskaya is the largest and one of the last of those that opened around the turn of the century. Compared to other Moscow stations, Paveletskaya, designed by Alexander Krasovsky and opened in 1900, represented a lower-key presence in its sprawling configuration, similar to palaces such as a Sans Souci without the ornamentation. The original site for the recent competition included a small park facing the station, bordered on one side by the Ring Road. Post WWII, the site was bifurcated by a road, thus separating the front entrance of the station from the grassy area facing it. Read more… Young Architects in Competitions When Competitions and a New Generation of Ideas Elevate Architectural Quality
by Jean-Pierre Chupin and G. Stanley Collyer
published by Potential Architecture Books, Montreal, Canada 2020
271 illustrations in color and black & white
Available in PDF and eBook formats
ISBN 9781988962047
What do the Vietnam Memorial, the St. Louis Arch, and the Sydney Opera House have in common? These world renowned landmarks were all designed by architects under the age of 40, and in each case they were selected through open competitions. At their best, design competitions can provide a singular opportunity for young and unknown architects to make their mark on the built environment and launch productive, fruitful careers. But what happens when design competitions are engineered to favor the established and experienced practitioners from the very outset? This comprehensive new book written by Jean-Pierre Chupin (Canadian Competitions Catalogue) and Stanley Collyer (COMPETITIONS) highlights for the crucial role competitions have played in fostering the careers of young architects, and makes an argument against the trend of invited competitions and RFQs. The authors take an in-depth look at past competitions won by young architects and planners, and survey the state of competitions through the world on a region by region basis. The end result is a compelling argument for an inclusive approach to conducting international design competitions. Download Young Architects in Competitions for free at the following link: https://crc.umontreal.ca/en/publications-libre-acces/
Image Courtesy Network Rail
From Grand Central Station to King’s Cross in London, railway stations have often represented some of the major architectural accomplishments of our times. But those edifices have been primarily located in great cities. In the U.K. there are over 2,000 stations located in medium-sized, small, and rural communities. Most of those are ‘quick stop’ locations, and not the destination terminals where space requirements often result in state of the art design. In July of last year, U.K.’s Network Rail, in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched a competition to identify a concept for a design that would be suitable for the medium to small-sized rail stations, at the same time updating the program to fit the modern needs of such a facility. The competition was open internationally and received 213 entries from 34 countries last September. Read more… The Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Competition
Urban Confluence Silicon Valley winner: ©SMAR Architecture Studio
After several stops and starts over an extended period of time, the winner of the Urban Confluence Design Competition was named in early March, 2021. SMAR Architecture Studio’s The Breeze of Innovation, which prevailed over two other shortlisted finalists from the original 963 entries, won with a novel tower-like structure consisting primarily of hundreds of rods, generating energy while swaying in the wind. Read More…
Pedestrian perspective
The result of an effort from a professor at the TUM (Technische Universität München) to restore the Budludzha Monument in Bulgaria, located in a remote location on a mountain top in that country, we discovered that it originally was the result of a 1959 design competition won by the young Bulgarian architect, Georgi Stoilov. Read more… A Flawed Plan Leads to Budget Issues
Competition rendering of project looking south to Mies museum ©Herzog de Meuron
Once considered on the forefront of modern architecture in post-WWII Europe, Berlin has had its share of questionable decisions concerning important urban projects in recent history. Beginning with the rebirth of the Berlin Palace (Humboldt Forum) on the Spree by Italian architect, Franco Stella, and now followed by Herzog de Meuron’s controversial addition to Mies’s 20th Century Art Museum, the times when one could look to Berlin as a signpost of architectural innovation can only be viewed in the rear view mirror.
Read more… |
