On the recommendation of Harvard’s Municipal Building Committee, Selectmen this week agreed to hire Design Technique, Inc. of Newburyport to oversee the development of schematic designs for the renovation of Town Hall and Hildreth House. Design Technique is the same company that oversaw design and construction of the Harvard Public Library.
“We didn’t hire them for that reason,” building committee co-chair Pete Jackson told Selectmen. “They won on merit.”
Twenty-nine project management firms expressed interest in the project, Jackson said. Eight submitted proposals, all of which were qualified, and the six-member building committee then reduced the list to four finalists.
“It was not an easy choice,” Jackson said. It came down to the interviews, he said, “where it became clear that some were better than others.”
Design Technique was founded in 1980 and was one of the first companies in the state to provide onsite project management to private owners, libraries, and schools. The same personnel who worked with town boards on the Harvard Library project will be assigned to the municipal buildings project, Jackson said.
“Because they already know the town well, they’ll be able to hit the ground running,” he said.
The town must now negotiate a contract and fees with Design Technique. Once an agreement is in place –in two weeks, according to Jackson–the next task will be to hire an architect to work with the firm and the buildings committee to prepare schematic designs for Town Hall and Hildreth House in time for Town Meeting in 2012.
In April, Town Meeting voted to borrow $185,000 to fund the work. A week later, voters agreed to finance that amount through a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion.
