Or so Memphis and Shelby County hopes...

Shelby County Park Conservancy today issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for teams to transform 4,500 acres at the center of the Memphis region into the “America’s great 21st century park.”

The RFQ launched a process that will result in the selection of three finalists for the master planning project by November 12 and selection of the winner of the “Shelby Farms Park Innovative Design Competition” by April 9.

The winner of the competition will develop a master plan estimated to cost $450,000. Deadline for responses to the RFQ is October 10.
Alex Garvin, prominent urban planner, educator, and author, is helping with the selection of the master planner, and said that the Conservancy is seeking responses from “firms, large and small; local, national and international; prominent and unknown.”

The three finalists for the master plan will participate in the “Shelby Farms Park Innovative Design Competition.” According to Garvin, the competition will be different from standard design competitions, because it will be an “open process to produce a design that is exceptional, attractive to the public, and that the Conservancy, and the design teams will be working directly with the Conservancy and key stakeholders through the process to develop their plans and designs.”

The finalists - each of which will receive a $25,000 honorarium and travel expenses - will have until February 25 to develop designs for Shelby Farms Park. During this time, they will tour the park, talk with park users, meet with the Conservancy and other supporters, and prepare and refine designs while working directly with the Conservancy and key stakeholders.

Once the designs are completed, a public exhibition is planned for March 6-26, so the public can see the proposals and respond to them. The winner of the Innovative Design Competition will be announced on April 9, and the master plan will be presented to Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners for their approval in June.

Criteria for selecting the finalists are quality of work, including creation of extraordinary environments in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parks, sensitivity to sense of place, connection beyond the immediate site, financial and environmental sustainability; innovative and outstanding experience in designing parks and public spaces, such as sense of arrival, circulation, biodiversity, and adaptability for the future; leadership; and people skills, communications and public engagement.

The RFQ is posted on the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy website at www.shelbyfarmspark.org and questions about the RFQ can be emailed to shelbyfarms@alexgarvin.net.

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