Tree Plaza Design Award: The Winner Is ...

DesignGreen was voted to receive the contract for an Engineered Design of RMA's Dupont Tree Plaza by the Restore Mass Ave Board of Directors Oct 23nd, following a three-way bake-off.

The three valid proposals were read and scored by two outside professional Reviewers.  RMA Board members compared each proposal against the requirements in our RFP released September 25th.

It was close! One Reviewer said all three showed "depth of experience" with designing and getting the myriad permits required to install "storm water retrofits" in District public space.  Five of the seven firms who had attended RMA's onsite briefing Oct 10th then bid on the project  as leaders or team members.

"The high participation rate shows a lot of enthusiasm in the DC storm water/urban design industry for our plaza project," says the President of RMA Deborah Shapley. The RMA Board and Reviewers want the runners-up to know how much we appreciate their input,  RMA hopes to work with them in other ways. The runners-up were Greening Urban / Moody Graham and Sudio39 / Bohler.

Wooden drew the future tree rows from the site plan below.

The DesignGreen proposal was specific as to how each task in the RFP would be done, by whom and when. This meant a higher score on Method and Comprehensiveness because the two others did not spell this out so clearly. The Board found that DG's partner Huska Engineering, which will take the lead from the 65% plan on, also appropriate for this project.

The DG proposal focused more than the others on the innovative aspect of planting and growing large-type trees  The team includes a specialist in this, Melissa Gildea of Lotus.

The proposed investigation of soils was important  The site's soils are unknown yet the roots large-species trees will need the right soil.

The DG proposal warned that boring in the Discovery phase could turn up constraints. Our Reviewers echoed that unexpected hurdles appear in such projects. David Wooden Studio submitted graphics showing the site.

Winning team logos

Runners-up had great recent projects;  both are qualified to do storm water retrofits in DC.  Each lost points for not spelling out clearly the steps requested in our RFP. We also looked for team leaders who are running complex,small projects.

Though DG already knew about the Tree Plaza due to prior contract work for us, DG separated itself when the award competition began.  RMA went to lengths to make the RFP so detailed, and gave so much information on the web site and Onsite Meeting, that anyone in this field could make a successful proposal
. The outside Reviewers knew all three proposers and many of the team partners.

Special thanks to our Reviewers

• David Suls, Senior Director of Planning & Policy, Golden Triangle BID 
• Lesley Conroy PLA Associate, GGN Ltd.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who considered this project, especially those who submitted.  The Board want sall who submitted to get friendly feedback from us. We may be able to engage some who didn't get this award on other projects in future.

Finally we thank again the Chesapeake Bay Trust G3 (Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Town)  fund for making it possible for RMA to commission a permit-ready Engineered Design for the Dupont Tree Plaza.