ADDITIONAL INFO

Master Planning Architects: StarkweatherBondy Landscape Architects, Conger Moss Guillard

March 17, 2008:
Selection of Architect for Campus Master Plan

On March 17, 2008, the San Francisco School Board of Trustees unanimously approved the recommendation of the Architect Selection Committee to hire StarkweatherBondy Architecture (SBA) to develop a Phased Master Plan and Conceptual Design for SFS. The SBA team includes the landscape architecture firm of Conger Moss Guillard (CMG).

The Committee sent requests for proposals to seven firms and received three responses. Following interviews with these three teams, The Committee selected two finalist candidates, Pfau Architecture and SBA, and had a guided tour of a local school site that each firm had designed. References were exemplary for both firms. Immediately following the tours, The Committee met to make the final recommendation. We were fortunate that both teams were highly qualified and highly motivated to do the job. The deciding factors for recommending SBA were:

• Depth of school design experience (over 98% of SBA’s work is for Bay Area schools; 25% is Master Planning) including middle school campus of Keys School, Brandeis Hillel Day School master plan, gym/theater and classrooms; Silicon Valley Childcare Center; Gateway Childcare Center; KD Burkes’ master plan; SF Day School gym/theater; Town School gym, University High library, visual arts center and math/science bldg renovation; Marin Academy library and visual arts center, etc.
• Broad experience and technical knowledge designing theaters, gymnasiums, multi-purpose spaces, libraries and classrooms
• Repeat clients (i.e. 12 years doing work at Marin Academy)
• Reputation for successful consensus building process
• Strong team, availability and good personality fit for SFS
• Stellar references
• Competitive cost

The architect began interviewing faculty and staff Tuesday, March 18th and will continue over three Tuesday afternoons in April. The entire community will be invited to participate in a Master Plan discussion at the All School Potluck/corporation meeting on Wednesday, April 16th so be sure to mark that on your calendars. We are also planning an “Eco-Charrette” for Earth Day, April 22 in the afternoon with student, faculty and some parent involvement. More details will follow regarding that event.