Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2019 | Page 33

Community Engagement
(left) October 2014 - ULI TAP presents to the com-
munity their recommended options for the location
of the school and commercial development.
(below) Fall 2015 - The team encourages commu-
nity participation in the process by running a half-
page ad in the local Falls Church News-Press.
a priority. With the support of multi-
ple partners — Urban Land Institute,
LINK Strategic Partners, and Perkins
Eastman — the city explored various
options to achieve a modern, larger high
school. That included jointly developing
the property — the private develop-
ment of 10 acres and the construction
of a new high school building on the
remaining 24 acres, with the existing
middle school. In 2014, the Urban Land
Institute Technical Assistance Panel
(ULI TAP) analyzed and presented de-
velopment options. This led to FCCPS
engagement to develop the new Shared
Vision for the Schools, with one of the
largest community audiences to date.
In late 2016, it was determined that
joint development would not provide
the results the community desired,
and the two projects were decoupled.
FCCPS initiated design and economic
feasibility efforts, leading to the identi-
fication of three options by early 2017:
partial new, renovation/addition, and
build new.
Continuing with the success of the
established communications plan, and
with the goal of defining the concept vi-
sion and financial plan, FCCPS and the
General Government conducted regular
meetings, surveys, and Q&A sessions to
obtain input from the community, re-
sponding publicly to all inquiries. Utiliz-
ing the listserv born from these engage-
ments and the PTA’s
support in spreading
the word, the broad
community was
kept informed.
Through this effort,
the city secured community support
for the “build new” option that led to
an overwhelming approval in late 2017
of a $120M Bond Referendum for the
construction of the future high school.
This was just the beginning. Imme-
diately following the Bond Referendum
approval, FCCPS issued an RFP for
Design-Build Concept Proposals. In
alignment with the transparent com-
munity engagement effort, Evaluation
Committees representing various
community stakeholder groups were
established. FCCPS leadership knew
how important the community was, and
was going to be, in the process of devel-
oping the site for the new high school. A
broad group of engaged and thoughtful
community members was key to ensur-
ing deep ownership of the project going
forward. During this process, FCCPS
recognized that the school project was
a bigger effort than it had the in-house
capacity or expertise to manage, so
in early 2018 it issued an RFP for an
Owner’s Representative. Through
the established selection committee
process, it ultimately hired Brailsford &
Dunlavey (B&D) (supported by Hans-
comb Consulting) to advise and manage
the high school project’s procurement,
programming, design, construction, and
community engagement.
With B&D on board, FCCPS was
now full steam ahead. The new owner
team collaborated to confirm the vision,
refine the project’s communications
plan, and keep the community up to
date during the Request for Detailed
Proposals process. Within just a few
months, the Design-Build team of Gil-
bane/Stantec/Quinn Evans Architects
was selected.
With the goal of breaking ground
by summer 2019, FCCPS and B&D
communications teams used various
platforms to reach out to the school
and broader city community to recruit
participation for Design Advisory Sub-
committees for the new high school’s
initial design phase. The project team
engaged in open discussions with school
administration/teachers, the communi-
ty, and newly formed subcommittees,
utilizing idea/comment “parking lots”
and rubrics. The team created a project
email address, where any projected-re-
lated inquiries could also be submit-
ted. All feedback, questions, and work
essentials | www.edmarket.org 33