Press Release: October 31, 2006

The school district continues to make significant progress on the PUSD Bond Program.

On October 25, 2006, five firms were selected to be in the District pool of qualified architectural / engineering services.They include (in alphabetical order):

  • ATI Architects and Engineers
  • Hibser Yamauchi Architects, Inc.
  • HTI, Inc.Architects
  • Murakami/Nelson
  • VBN Architects

Fourteen firms responded to the District’s Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for architectural / engineering services.  The goal of the RFQ was to create a list of qualified individuals or firms that will receive future Requests for Proposals on identified projects and other future projects under the bond program to retrofit and upgrade its school facilities.

Program Manager, David Burke, expressed confidence in the process of arriving at the current pool of firms.

§  CPM’s Burke worked with District staff and developed a short-list of 8 firms that best satisfied the bond program qualification requirements.

§  A six-member panel interviewed the firms on October 18, 2006.On the panel were: Superintendent of Schools Constance Hubbard, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Michael Brady, Board President Ward Lindenmayer, Board Member Roy Tolles, Technical Advisory Chair, and structural engineer, Janiele Maffei, and Technical Advisory Committee Member and architect, Stan Moy.

§  The panel identified five highly qualified firms and reviewed this group with the Technical Advisory Committee before bringing a final recommendation to the Board of Education.

§  After review and discussion on the process and recommendations, the Board unanimously approved the pool of five firms selected.

§  In addition, the Board authorized the Superintendent to begin negotiations with one of the firms, Murakami/Nelson, for structural engineering and cost estimation work at the highest priority schools, Piedmont High School and Havens Elementary School.

This update was posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 8:50 pm.