Bond Projects:
Architect Selection Committee

As a part of the three major construction projects, (the new high school, new elementary school, and the redesign of the high school), the district has gone through the process of selecting an architect. This process has been time-consuming, but helps to insure that the most qualified firm has been selected for the project.

This process began in June, when an architect review committee was formed. This group consisted of four members: three from the administration level of the school district, and one parent from the district.

This group then posted a Letter of Interest/Statement of Qualifications legal notice in the Everett Herald, the Daily Journal of Commerce, and the Seattle Times, asking different architecture firms to apply for these projects. The due date for these documents was June 16th.

From the twenty-eight letters of interest received from different firms, the Architect Review Committee met to establish a short list of architects who would be invited to submit a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). Eight firms were selected and the RFQ documents were mailed to them with a due date of July 22nd.

From the RFQ documents, the Architect Review Committee established another short list of architects that would be invited for an interview. Some of the architectural firms requested to work on only one project, while other submitted for either two, or all 3, major projects. Overall, the committee selected to interview three architectural firms for each project, with an overall total of four firms interviewed.

From these interviews, the Committee selected Northwest Architecture Company, also known as NAC. NAC was selected because of their outstanding qualifications and references and the quality of the architect teams they proposed for each project. There will be three different architect teams working on each project based upon their specialized backgrounds in the three different types of projects, (i.e. new high schools, new elementary schools, and major modernization projects).

We look forward to seeing the work from NAC very soon, as they share design ideas in public Charettes. A charette is essentially a community forum designed to get feedback from the audience. The firm is already very involved in this process, as they have joined the educational specifications meetings, and have presented concepts to the board.