Santa Rosa deciding between three design firms for Old Courthouse Square project

Three firms have responded to Santa Rosa’s search for a team that can pull together a rapid redesign for the reunification of Old Courthouse Square.

The teams were interviewed Wednesday behind closed doors by a selection committee that is expected to make a recommendation to City Manager Sean McGlynn by the end of the week, said Jason Nutt, the city’s transportation and public works director.

Of the three firms, two have significant involvement with past efforts to reunify the square.

Sausalito-based architecture firm SWA Group created an elaborate vision for the square that was selected by the City Council in 2007 after a design competition. The SWA design included a 25-foot-high water wall, lighted arbors, four kiosks and limited side streets.

The firm has eight offices around the world and about 200 employees.

But last year, facing a four-year drought, tighter post-recession budgets and opposition from downtown business leaders, the $17 million project fell out of favor with the new City Council.

Santa Rosa-based civil engineering firm Carlile-Macy also has submitted a proposal. The firm, which has about 50 employees and an office in Railroad Square, is working with downtown business leaders and property owners on a simpler, less expensive plaza design similar to those that exist in Healdsburg and Sonoma.

That design proposes 47 more parking spaces than the SWA plan, mostly on the future side streets - Hinton on the east and Exchange to the west.

That idea won support from the new council, which capped the project cost at $10 million. The council also voiced support for a final design that maximized parking on side streets and was “simple, open, flexible and sustainable.”

One of the firm’s retired founders, Richard Carlile, has been involved in the efforts of the downtown business group, known as the Coalition to Restore Courthouse Square.

The third firm that submitted a proposal is BKF Engineering, a Redwood City-based engineering, surveying and planning firm with an office in Santa Rosa.

With 325 employees in 11 offices mostly in the Bay Area, the firm is the largest participating in the process. BKF’s team has members with experience in past reunification efforts, said Greg Hurd, a principal at the company. Size and ability to act quickly could prove an important selection factor because the city has stressed that it wants to get the project under construction by June 1.

There will be just three months from the time the winning firm is named Monday to when the design and construction drawings need to be completed.

Nutt said the winning firm will need to demonstrate that it can meet the city’s accelerated timeline, which Nutt has called “aggressive” and “very, very tight.”

He declined, however, to share details from the three proposals, saying it is not the city’s policy when hiring professionals.

“We want to make sure the process has as much integrity as possible,” Nutt said.

For a similar reason, Nutt also declined to say who was serving on the selection panel. He said he didn’t want members of the design teams reaching out to try to influence the panelists, he said.

He did say, however, that the panelists would include one representative each from the Transportation and Public Works Department - presumably him - the Recreation and Parks Department, the Planning and Economic Development Department, the City Council, the Coalition to Restore Courthouse Square, the American Institute of Architects and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.

Nutt said he would identify the panelists after completion of the interviews. Once a firm is selected, that firm’s sealed bid will be opened, Nutt explained.

It will then be up to City Manager Sean McGlynn to decide whether to hire the firm. In an effort to expedite the process, the council gave McGlynn the authority to spend up to $500,000 to do so, far beyond his normal expenditure limit of $100,000.

The goal is to have a firm selected by Monday and to have a design team working by Dec. 7.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.