The "Rethinking public spaces" Request for qualification is innovative and inclusive. It is not linked to a specific project or public call for tender but to many eventual design laboratories projects. This process fosters the awarding of municipal contracts to Montréal designers and architects, including those of the next generation, and gets them involved in the economic recovery of Montréal, UNESCO City of Design.
Considering the pandemic context, the Bureau du design is helping boroughs and city departments so that they can call on pre-qualified teams to design and implement measures that address their issues such as modified routes and user mobility, waiting lines for businesses, outdoor sales and consumption areas, etc.
This innovative request for qualification has been launched in order to create a pool of multidisciplinary teams that consist of professionals in all fields of design and architecture; established in Montréal; and have the capacity, experience, and skills to design and carry out temporary urban development projects, in particular on commercial streets.
Selecting a group of qualified and competent bidders will thus allow the city to be more agile in awarding professional service contracts by mutual agreement (below the threshold for public tenders).
This is a tangible example of the principles set out in the Montréal 2030 Agenda for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture, which focuses on creativity, innovation, and sustainability by making designers and architects allies in Montréal’s green and social transition during the COVID-19 crisis.
The call is aimed at pre-qualifying multidisciplinary design and architecture teams, which may be composed of different entities (companies, sole proprietors [self-employed workers], non-profit organizations, cooperatives, groups of individuals, associations, etc.) that satisfy the criteria below.
- Each entity of a team must be established (have an address) on the territory of the Ville de Montréal.
- A team must collectively possess, without being limited to, experience in service design, urban design, street furniture design, signage, commercial design, temporary structures, interactive design, project and budget management, consultation/federation of stakeholders.
- A team must be able to present at least three public-space development projects that involve a certain level of complexity and illustrate the experience and skills listed in the previous point. Unproduced concepts may be added to demonstrate the team’s creativity in rethinking public spaces and their uses.
- Each team must name a coordinator and deputy, both of whom must have at least five years of experience in project management and staff coordination.
- Each entity of a team must be available and in a position to satisfactorily carry out a project/contract over the coming 6 to 12 months.
- Any individual entity may only be a part of one team.
- Each entity must be registered on the Ville de Montréal’s list of suppliers
Architects and designers have until Friday, June 12, Midnight, to take part in the request for qualification, using the online form (available in French only).
This pool may be renewed in 6 to 12 months from now.
Once the Bureau du design has processed and reviewed the submissions, it will write to each team’s coordinator to confirm eligibility or non-eligibility. Notices sent to conditionally pre-qualified teams will include a list of missing information and the deadline for meeting the conditions. Notices sent to coordinators of disqualified teams will enumerate the specific reasons for disqualification.
The Bureau du design will publish the list of all pre-qualified teams.
For each given project, the Bureau du design will proceed with an electronic ramdow draw to identify tree (3) teams from among those prequalified. These teams will be ivited to a remote interview by the Bureau and the contracting city borough or department. They must then be able to demonstrate their ability to rethink the public space and share their motivations and thoughts on the issues involved with redeveloping arteries, whatever their actual or foreseen configuration (pedestrians, the existence of health corridors, creating safe active transportation lanes (SATL), etc.) may be.
The interview does not require any preparation other than being abreast of developments concerning safe active transportation lanes, thinking about issues related to developing public spaces during the pandemic, and having some experience with different Montréal neighbourhoods, in particular its commercial streets.
The Bureau du design will publish the results of all draws carried out as part of this request for qualifications, along with the names of the contracted teams.
For any questions, please write to Montréal’s Bureau du design at @email
