Ridgewater College, Willmar Tech. Inst.Addition& Ren. Designer Selection

One of my work assignments is to participate in marketing efforts that include presentations before the Minnesota State Designer Selection Board. These presentations occurs if our team as been "short listed" from a number of qualified respondents to "Requests for Proposals" issued by the SDSB for projects the State will fund, generally outside of DOT work. It's a grueling effort by our marketing group who try and corral the key players into shaping the message we want to communicate in a written product for part one of the process. Then if we are fortunate to have communicated the reasons we should be providing design services it's on to an interview.

The interview itself occurs in St. Paul with the Board plus representatives of the facility that the project will benefit. The room is small and we have 15 minutes to tell our story and why we will provide the best project outcome and value to the State and the specific project. In our last effort we had a team of 5, Bruce, Sara, Jill Steve, and myself - so we had about 3 minutes each to communicate our message. Usually the MEP person goes last as so is a bit rushed, but this time I had the middle position. As usual, my body reacted a bit to the public speaking by causing me to really heat up as I start talking about the issues, for this project the indoor environment conditions were a key component, so I find myself uncomfortably warm, sort of an ironic thing when you are talking about HVAC. Additional issues include setting energy utilization intensity goals, daylighting in pursuit of those goals, and making sure our MEP designs are flexible enough to accommodate future changes in the central energy plant.

There is a Q and A session at the end of our presentation with questions coming from the board and project users. Throughout the whole process our team, normally physically located in two offices, interacted like the integrated and collaborative team that we say we are. It was really
fun to watch as we supported each other though the presentation and Q and A portion of the interview process.

The SDSB selects two teams to be forwarded to the project facility managers for their final selection. We heard the results about 27 hours after we completed the interview process.

Here's what I e-mailed to the entire firm about my feelings when we found out about getting this project: "I just wanted to add my personal note that the interview team and process was one of the most enjoyable Designer Section Board efforts I have been a part of over the last couple of decades. The real strength of LHB as a collaborative team that enjoys working together to produce buildings that work for our clients was evident in everything we communicated to the DSB and the campus. Our growth into one professional practice focused on sustainability in a regional marketplace also was more evident than before.

Cograts to Bruce and Sara for leading this effort."

Toshio