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University of California, Berkeley
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS
Ideas Planning Exercise
Design Ideas for the Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay
Project XXX
INTRODUCTION
In May 2014, the Regents of University of California approved a Long Range Development Plan
(LRDP) and certified a programmatic Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) allowing development of the 134-acre site with up
to 5.4 million square feet of research, educational and support uses on the site. The LRDP was
based on creating an opportunity to co-locate University of California, Berkeley (the University)
and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) programs as well as public/private ventures
conducting research and development activities in a wide range of science, engineering and
technology fields. The scientific vision for what was then termed the Richmond Bay Campus
(RBC) was to create a state-of-the-art, inspirational, and sustainable place to produce worldclass collaborative science for healthy living and sustainable communities, developing solutions
for 21st century challenges in the areas of energy, the environment, health, and the global
economy.
In November 2014, Berkeley’s new Chancellor – Nicholas Dirks – spoke to the Berkeley
Academic Senate and announced his intent to reorient the vision for the RBC into the Berkeley
Global Campus at Richmond Bay (BGC). The BGC is a bold vision to create an entirely new form
of international research hub that will be the focal point for a new international coalition of
academic institutions and private sector partners, who have the means and the motivation to
collaborate on research projects that will address serious and complex global challenges, from
neuroscience and nanotechnology, to climate change and public health.
One of Chancellor Dirks' highest priorities is to increase Berkeley’s global reach, in terms of both
research and teaching. As befits one of the world’s leading universities, Berkeley is already
globalized: our students study in dozens of different countries; our faculty do research and
collaborate with scholars in over a hundred countries; thousands of students from overseas
study here at Berkeley; and our alumni can be found almost everywhere. The BGC provides an
excellent venue where we can support, extend, and deepen all these commitments, while at the
same time connecting our international endeavors to local needs in our region and state, as well
as our public mission. At the same time, as the BGC represents an exciting new model for
global engagement and research integration, it will also be deeply tied to the Main campus and
to the local community through a variety of labor, educational, and transportation connections.
Background
The BGC will be located on University-owned properties located in the City of Richmond,
California. There are two separate properties comprising the site: (1) the Richmond Field
Station, and (2) 3200 Regatta Boulevard. The existing properties on the Richmond Field Station
currently house a range of research and development activities within approximately 600,000
square feet of space existing in 80 primarily small-scale structures including offices, wet labs,
and high bay facilities. There are two large warehouse structures occupying approximately
400,000 square feet of space at the 3200 Regatta site.
The approved LRDP and certified EIR is a 40 year plan that shows most of these existing
structures will over time be demolished and the site being be redeveloped into a 5.4 million
square foot campus with multiple story structures housing academic, research and development
activities, meeting space, supporting office and meeting space as well as neighborhood-serving
retail. Although the approved LRDP and EIR did not contemplate housing on the site, the
Chancellor’s vision of a Global Campus developed in partnership with Universities from around
the world would necessitate that housing be included as an allowable use, therefore the LRDP
will need to be amended. It is expected that the redevelopment will be phased over time and
several of the existing structures will remain in operation for indeterminate periods into the
future. Two facilities – Building 201 housing the EPA Region 9, and Building 400 housing the
University of California’s Northern Region Library Facility (NRLF) are incorporated into the full
implementation of the current LRDP.
In July 2014, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control approved the Removal
Action Workplan (RAW) for the RFS site. The RAW establishes the remedial goals and final
remedy including prescriptive requirements and land use controls (LUCs) for all developable
land area soils and groundwater at the portions of the site that were determined to
require additional removal actions based on site characterization activities. The RAW also
includes a Soils Management Plan to be used for future construction and other soil disturbance
which supports the implementation of LUCs by providing a framework to prohibit uncontrolled
soil excavation or disturbance activities. The remedial actions foreseen in the RAW were also
evaluated thru the EIR.
In January 2015, the University and its engineering consultants completed an Infrastructure
Master Plan. The plan establishes a framework for phased infrastructure development in a
sustainable manner and aims to meet or exceed President Napolitano’s mandate for UC to
become a net zero energy consumer by 2025. The plan also evaluates alternative technologies
to determine feasibility based on the University’s stated goals and created an interactive
evaluation tool that drives design and performance of each projected future building.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The University wishes to explore a range of new architectural and planning design ideas to
support the Chancellor’s comprehensive, bold vision while leveraging the extensive resources
and effort already expended in creating the LRDP, the EIR, the RAW and the Infrastructure
Master Plan that has been recently completed. To that end, this Request for Qualifications
(RFQ) is seeking design firms or teams interested in participating in the BGC Ideas Planning
Exercise (Exercise). The University expects to select approximately 3 to 5 firms or teams who
will be modestly compensated at a fee of $40,000 per team. The University firmly believes that
ideas arise from small as well as large firms, therefore, the University will seek to ensure that at
least 1 of the firms selected to participate is a small business enterprise (less than 20 people).
Planning Exercise Outcomes
The key purpose of the Exercise is to allow the University to evaluate the range of options it has
in transforming the solid work already performed by its consultants over the last two years into
a well conceived planning framework for the Berkeley Global Campus. Ideally, the outcome
would result in:
1. Concepts for how to modify the LRDP conceptual site plan to better support the BGC.
2. Scenario planning concepts for an initial phase comprised of an academic core of up to
three new buildings of approximately 100,000 to 150,000 square feet each and
associated parking strategy, while allowing a majority of the high-value assets on site to
continue to operate.
3. Renderings and/or other materials providing illustrative visual representations of an
architectural character for the BGC.
Process
The Exercise is envisioned as a four-step process that will harness the talents of the multifaceted Bay Area design community and beyond. The first two Steps outline the basic RFQ
solicitation and selection process, while Steps 3 and 4 describe the core activities of the Exercise
itself.
Step 1: RFQ
~2 weeks
Step 2:
Forum &
Approach
1 week
Step 3:
Exercise
Check-In
~2 weeks
Step 4:
Exercise
Conclusion
~4 weeks
Step 1: Request for Qualifications
This RFQ is being issued to solicit interest from small and large firms across the Bay Area and
beyond who can demonstrate experience with campus design and global issues at large. As this
Exercise is essentially like an ideas competition, the qualifications need not be limited to built
work but could include submissions made by the firm to other competitions and/or concept
ideas presented to other clients. The goal is to assess the universe of interested participants in
order to select a cross-section of small to large firms, local to global firms, and a multiplicity of
approaches.
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Firms will have approximately two (2) weeks to prepare and submit qualifications.
Qualifications contents should include:
1. Firm(s) name, location, description
2. Resumes of firm or team members who would participate in the Competition
3. Sample Projects and role of firm/team on such projects
Based on a review of responses, a shortlist of approximately 8 to 10 firms or teams will
be invited to participate in the Forum Session step.
Selected Firms will not be compensated to participate in the Forum Session.
Step 2: Forum Session & Approach Brief
The University will hold a half-day meeting with the firms selected in Step 1 at the site of the
BGC. The intent of the Forum session is to allow firms to become immersed in the site, the
background information that exists about the site, the LRDP, the EIR, the Infrastructure Master
Plan, the Removal Action Workplan (RAW) and the existing assets on the site. The University
will also present the goals for the Competition and some basic concept information on
programming. The half-day will include structured presentations, a site walk, informal
discussions, sub-group discussions and an open question/answer period.
Following the half-day session, firms will have an opportunity to decide to submit to be selected
to participate in the Exercise by submitting an Approach Brief. Firms can decide to submit on
their own, form a team with another of the firms selected to participate in the Forum, or decline
to participate.
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Firms will be provided one (1) week to prepare and submit a brief Statement of Interest
and Approach to the Exercise – this document should comprise no more than two (2)
double-sided 8.5x11 pages. The intent is not to repeat the information provided during
the Forum nor to provide final concepts but rather to elucidate the key tenets/idea
drivers for design solutions that the firm/team would use during the Exercise if selected
to participate.
Based on a review of the responses, the University would select 3 to 5 firms – including
at least one small business enterprise – to participate in the Exercise.
Step 3: Ideas Exercise Start-up & Check-In
The University will provide the Selected Exercise Participants with a programmatic overview of
uses and spaces that should be considered in envisioning the transformation of the site, along
with the existing approved LRDP, EIR, RAW and Infrastructure Master Plan, into the Berkeley
Global Campus. In order to ensure that the ideas presented at the outcome of the competition
are most useful to the University, the University will have a check-in phase with each of the
participating firms or teams individually. This step is not intended to be part of the ultimate
selection process of the winning entry. It is solely intended to provide the team and the
University to interact during the conceptualization period so as to result in a more useful set of
ideas for the University. The BGC Development Manager, the Infrastructure Master Plan
engineering team representatives, and other University staff will be conducting the Check-In
meetings with teams. The check-in representatives will NOT form part of the Final Selection
Panel.
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Selected Exercise Participants will be compensated a total of $40,000 for their
participation in the subsequent Steps 3 and 4.
Check-In will occur within the first two (2) weeks of the start-up.
Step 4: Ideas Exercise Conclusion
The entire Exercise will be six (6) weeks including the Check-In described in Step 3 above.
Therefore, firms will have approximately four (4) weeks post Check-In to finalize and prepare
presentation materials for the presentations.
• The preferred presentation format is an electronic presentation in a slideshow format
which could include text, renderings, illustrations, photographs, videos, etc. sufficient to
represent the ideas.
• A Selection Panel composed of some University leaders and some outside entities will
judge all entries and issue the recognitions.
• There will not be monetary awards beyond the compensation for participation.
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The University may or may not select to engage the winning firm in subsequent
planning, design or architectural work as a result of this Exercise.
If the University elects to retain the selected firm for subsequent phases of the
work, the firm would be required to sign the University’s Executive Design
Professional Agreement. For services prior to the beginning of Schematic Design,
the successful firm will be required to sign the University’s Professional Services
Agreement. Both of these documents can be reviewed at
http://www.cp.berkeley.edu/ContractsAgreemnts.html.
DEADLINES
Step 1: RFQ
Statement of Qualifications will be due as of 5PM on Friday, January 23rd , 2015 and are to be
received via electronic mail addressed to:
Terezia C. Nemeth
Development Manager
Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay
University of California, Berkeley
[email protected]
Step 2: Forum and Approach
• Firms invited to participate in the Forum will be notified on Monday, January 26th.
• The Forum will take place on Tuesday, January 27th, 2015 from 12noon to 5pm at the
site of the Berkeley Global Campus, Building 445.
• The Approach Brief will be due via electronic format send to the same address as listed
above as of 5PM on Thursday, February 5th.
Step 3: Ideas Exercise Startup & Check In
• Firms invited to participate in the Exercise will be notified on Monday, February 9th
• Check-In will de scheduled late in the week of February 16th
Step 4: Jury Review
• Final Ideas Exercise Submissions will be due as of 5pm on Monday, March 23rd
• Presentations to the Selection Panel will be schedule the week of March 23rd with final
winner announcement by the end of that week.
COMMUNICATIONS/INQUIRIES
All communication or inquiries concerning this Request for Qualifications shall be emailed to the
above.
PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
The University prefers not to receive proprietary technical information. If the response to this
RFQ includes any proprietary technical information, it must be marked “Proprietary” or
equivalent. The University will use its reasonable efforts to (1) maintain such proprietary
information in confidence, giving it the same degree of care, but no less than a reasonable
degree of care, as it exercises with its own proprietary information to prevent its unauthorized
disclosure; and (2) only disclose such proprietary information to its employees, agents,
consultants, subcontractors or Government personnel who have a need to know in order to
achieve the goals stated within this RFQ.
The California Public Records Act limits the University's ability to withhold qualification data. The
University agrees that if a "Public Records Act" request is made for disclosure of data marked
“Proprietary” or equivalent, it will notify the submitter of such data so that the submitter will
have an opportunity to legally challenge the University's obligation to disclose such information.
The University will not return submittals.
REQUIREMENTS AFTER RESPONSE
Any respondent may be required to submit additional information which allows the University
to make a more informed decision about placing the firm/team on the short list. All contact with
the University regarding this solicitation shall go through the Development Manager Terezia
Nemeth.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Every effort will be made to
ensure that all persons, regardless of race, religion, sex, color, and national origin have equal
access to contracts and other business opportunities with the University.
The University reserves the right to cancel this Request for Qualifications for any reason without
any liability or to waive irregularities at its discretion. This solicitation does not constitute a
contract offer of employment, or offer of purchase. The University makes no representation
that any contract will be awarded to any respondent to this solicitation and reserves the right to
reject any and all qualifications/proposals at its sole discretion.