The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced an open request for qualifications to be issued August 19 and extended to the most innovative architects and planners in New York City and around the world. Firms are invited to participate in an LMDC design study regarding the future of the World Trade Center site, announced LMDC President and Executive Director Louis R. Tomson.

New York New Visions, a coalition of 21 architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and design organizations, will advise LMDC in selecting up to five teams to prepare additional alternatives to the six preliminary concept plans released on July 16. The teams will receive a $40,000 stipend from the LMDC and be guided by new, flexible program alternatives developed by the LMDC in conjunction with the Port Authority. The alternatives reportedly will feature a range of commercial space and incorporate substantial public input.

"At Listening to the City and other public forums throughout the last several months, we vowed to incorporate public input into the planning process," Tomson said at the press conference at the New York Design Center at which he announced the upcoming RFQ. "The invaluable public input we received is helping to shape the future of downtown. Involving additional design teams and allowing greater flexibility in the program will ensure that a variety of bold options will be introduced during this second phase."

New York New Visions Executive Committee cochairs Marcie Kesner, AICP, and Mark Ginsberg, AIA, expressed pleasure that New York New Visions has been able to assist LMDC in creating a process to obtain a wide range of design talent.

AIA New York Chapter President Leevi Kiil, FAIA, chair of the New York New Visions interim-action and short-term issues team, was present at the press conference, where he praised the assistance provided to the LMDC and Port Authority by New York New Visions volunteers. Kiil noted that the New York New Visions Principles for the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan calls for "an open, transparent process to decide what to do with the WTC site and Lower Manhattan" and suggests "that planners must seek out and incorporate the best ideas."

The RFQ will will be available on LMDC's Web site August 19. The study will be open to licensed architects and professional planners as well as landscape architects, according to the LMDC announcement. Selection criteria developed in conjunction with New York New Visions include quality of past projects, especially innovative and outstanding work that demonstrates unique qualifications. The LMDC will work with New York New Visions to appoint a team of outside advisors to narrow the field of potentially thousands of respondents to the RFQ. An LMDC committee will then make the final selection of teams.

The deadline for responses to the RFQ is September 16. Up to five teams will be selected on September 30. The design study concludes in mid-November. By the end of November, all teams will have submitted final content and presentation materials, including hard-line drawings, freehand sketches, renderings, computer-generated images, and site models. Concurrent to the intensive RFQ design process, LMDC/Port Authority planning staff and consultants, including Beyer Blinder Belle, will continue to explore varied approaches to the World Trade Center site based on the new program alternatives. All work will be ready for public review by December, completing the second phase in the three-phase planning process.

The LMDC press release noted that LMDC has partnered with New York New Visions in recognition of the organization's commitment to excellence, as stated in New York New Visions' Principles for the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan: "New York City should aspire to the highest possible quality of urban planning, architectural, and environmental design in rebuilding Lower Manhattan. An architecture that is compelling, meaningful over the long term, and culturally ambitious not only respects the past, but also takes great risks to create the future."

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.