UPDATED: Feb. 8, 2016 at 10:41 p.m.

When the National Veterans Resource Complex Selection Committee was tasked to choose firms to design the complex, it decided to take an approach that has not been done before: holding an invited competition.

Now, three firms that are in the running to design the Obama Presidential Library are in competition once more to design the National Veterans Resource Complex, which will house Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families — one of the leading institutes for veterans in the country. The NVRC will also serve as the home to a number of other tenants, including the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs.

“(The competition) enables us to not only involve and engage in the campus and our constituencies here in this discussion, but enables us to tell the story of how important this building and veterans are to this university and to this region,” said Michael Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University and a member of the selection committee.

Speaks said the committee had sent a letter of invitation to between 25 and 28 firms to submit their qualifications. Known as a request for qualifications, he said, it is essentially a résumé providing descriptions about the firms, what kind of projects they have done in the past and the names of those who are proposing to be on the team for the project.

“We needed a firm that had commitment that showed design excellence and expertise, but a firm we also knew could do the project and could do it not only with confidence, but great skill and great execution,” Speaks said.

Then the selection committee members — composed of faculty, staff, student and design professionals — did research and deliberation on the merits of each firm. The university announced that Adjaye Associates, SHoP and Snohetta were chosen as the finalists on Jan. 20.

These three firms will move on to a second phase and will be submitting “schematic proposals,” so the committee can get a basic understanding of what they are doing in terms of the complex’s mass, what kind of materials will be used in the construction of the complex and how the complex will be situated.

The three firms visited SU last week and this week to visit the site. The visits’ objectives, Speak said, are for the architects to understand SU better and for the committee representatives to understand the architects better.

There will be three separate public lectures in late March and early April showcasing the general work of the three firms. The lectures, which are being organized by the School of Architecture as part of the Architecture Lecture Series, aim to provide the community with a general understanding of what these firms generally do, Speaks said.

The firms’ designs of the NVRC will be presented to the selection committee sometime in late April. The committee will later make the final decision and forward the decision to the Board of Trustees via the Chancellor’s Office.

The NVRC will be the first building to be built as a result of the Campus Master Plan — the part of the Fast Forward initiative led by Chancellor Kent Syverud that aims to better SU’s infrastructure.

Mike Haynie, vice chancellor of veteran and military affairs at SU, sits on the committee, and said the NVRC serves as a “physical infrastructure” for campus-focused work, but also positions the university as the “national hub” for hosting conferences, academic conventions and research events on campus.

“I think this building is clearly one of those opportunities to go out and deliver innovation in higher education in a way that also has a compelling social and cultural impact,” Haynie said.

Aaron Dorf, senior architect and project director at Snohetta, said his firm is excited to be able to participate.

“We always love doing university work, but this is even more special because it’s for veterans,” Dorf said. “This project is really important to us because a lot of us come from families of veterans and grew up connected to veterans issues.”

The complex is tentatively planned to be constructed on the western part of Waverly Avenue.

Published on February 3, 2016 at 10:55 pm

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