26-004QP: On-Call Pedestrian Wayfinding

Project Description:

Seamless Seattle is the City of Seattle’s citywide pedestrian wayfinding system. To date, there are over 120 Seamless Seattle wayfinding signs across the city’s Downtown and University District, with additional wayfinding expansions currently being planned. As Seattle continues to grow, the Seamless Seattle system will meet the evolving pedestrian wayfinding needs of residents and visitors through system expansion, updates and maintenance, and smart asset management. Qualified proposers will be prepared to provide comprehensive on-call consultant services toward the continued development of the Seamless Seattle program through wayfinding system planning, wayfinding maps and asset development using SDOT’s established pedestrian wayfinding design standards and criteria, updates to existing wayfinding signs and assets, city pedestrian wayfinding system asset management, and community engagement.

The on-call contract will be used when no in-house resources are available or when in-house expertise is not available. One contract will be awarded for up to $600,000. The contract term is expected to be five (5) years, starting January 2027 and ending in January 2032.

Specific services for individual scopes of work, fee and schedule will be defined via Work Authorizations. The SDOT Project Manager will engage the Consultant to negotiate individual scopes, schedules, and budget for each Work Authorizations, which will vary based on those services. There is no minimum guarantee of work under this solicitation.

Project Details

• Reference ID: 26-004QP
• Department: Department of Transportation
• Department Head: Adiam Emery (Interim Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-08-27T23:00:00.000Z
• Pre-Proposal Meeting: 2026-08-06T17:00:00.000Z — https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZmViZjMzOTYtZjc1MC00MjBmLTgyYmUtNjgwMTEzNGZlY2Yx%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2278e61e45-6beb-4009-8f99-359d8b54f41b%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22936f6ede-28ca-45b0-a07c-cf74df8c2791%22%7d

Evaluation Criteria

• Proposal Evaluation (100 pts)
• On-Call Project Delivery (30 pts) —

  On-Call Project Delivery (30 Points)

  1.1 Existing Standards: Describe your team’s understanding of the Seamless Seattle Pedestrian Wayfinding system as currently implemented, including vision, goals, principles, standards, and existing assets.

  1.2 Organization Capacity & Structure: Outline your team’s organizational structure and capacity to perform the services described in the Scope of Work. Specifically address the following:

  • Include an organizational chart showing effective team structure to meet needs of an on-call contract.
  • Identify task leads for the specialized core functions in the Scope of Work.
  • Describe team members’ technical skills relevant to Scope of Work core functions and multidisciplinary experience as outlined in Solicitation Minimum Qualifications. Provide short biographies, including relevant professional licensure, experience in proposed role, and a concise list of relevant projects within the past 5 years.
  • Describe permanent staff capacity to take on work over the anticipated term of contract.
  • Describe team member familiarity with local Seattle context and communities.
  • Describe team member experience coordinating with fabricators and installers of city wayfinding signs.

  1.3 Project Delivery:

  • Provide number and description of city wayfinding planning and design projects that the proposer has delivered to completion in the past two years;
  • Demonstrate ability to complete necessary reports, schedules, and summaries.
• Project Team Experience (30 pts) —

  Project Team Experience (30 Points)

  2.1 Overall Experience: Describe your team’s experience designing city pedestrian wayfinding systems for complex urban environments (Refer to Solicitation Minimum Qualifications).

  2.2 Project Examples (13 pages maximum as outlined below): Include sample files demonstrating breadth of City wayfinding systems planning and design experience as follows:

  • PDF sample excerpts toward demonstrating wayfinding planning and design experience (10 pages max. total) :
  • • • • Sign location planning document – two (2) projects, two (2) pages max each; four (4) pages max. total
        • Community engagement summary – two (2) projects, two (2) pages max each; four (4) pages max total. Sign content schedule – two (2) projects, one (1) page each; two (2) pages total
  • • • PDF samples toward demonstrating graphic production process, using software screenshots or equivalent (three (3) pages total):
  • • • • Map-based artwork – one (1) project, two (2) pages max.
        • Overall sign panel artwork (including or not including map-based artwork) – one (1) projects, one (1) page.

  2.3 Community Engagement Experience:

  • • • Provide examples of your team’s experience facilitating inclusive stakeholder workshops relevant to wayfinding map asset selection, place naming, universal design elements, and developed translations for place name.
      • Provide examples of your team’s experience completing public engagement plans and summary reports and has demonstrated experience synthesizing engagement results with wayfinding system standards toward wayfinding planning recommendations.

  2.4 Wayfinding System Planning Experience:

  • • • Describe your team’s experience planning wayfinding systems at a city scale and has established system standards to guide priority route planning, location planning, and sign type processes.
      • Describe your team’s experience leading wayfinding location planning, including establishment of priority route networks and decision points.
      • Provide examples of experience establishing sign type systems and system standards for clutter reduction.
      • Provide examples of experience creating standards for system accessibility.
      • Describe your team’s experience leading coordination efforts for sign location placement based on city right-of-way design standards,existing conditions.

  2.5 Wayfinding Sign Content, Artworking, and Implementation Experience:

  Provide detailed examples of your team’s experience with the following:

  • • • At a city wayfinding system scale, creating base maps, directional sign content, sign content schedules, and final sign artwork based on established system standards.
      • Creating cartographic and graphic wayfinding content integrated across GIS-based and graphic production software, particularly through Adobe and ESRI applications.
      • Coordinating with fabricators and installers on the design and implementation of pedestrian wayfinding signs, including production of design intent drawings.

  2.6 Asset Management Experience:

  Provide detailed examples of your team’s experience with the following:

  • • • Creating interactive GIS-based asset management platforms for city wayfinding system management.
      • Building backend systems for physical asset management, compatible with GIS-based asset management systems.
• Quality of Proposed Approach (30 pts) —

  3. Quality of Proposed Approach (30 Points)

  3.1 Overall Understanding and Alignment

  3. • Describe how your team would provide the services described in the “Scope of Work”, including proposed approach, composition of the project team, and work examples demonstrating expertise in pedestrian wayfinding research and best practices. Your response should include your approach to creating wayfinding system standards.
     • Identify the key challenges and opportunities for citywide pedestrian wayfinding expansion led by a transportation agency.

   

  3.2 Creative Project Solutions: Describe at least two city wayfinding project examples that demonstrate creativity and innovation in problem solving. Examples should highlight specific planning or design solutions, including coordination efforts.

  3.3 Wayfinding System Planning

  • Describe your overall approach to establishing and updating wayfinding system standards for projects at a city wayfinding scale.
  • Describe your approach to priority route and location planning as well as wayfinding research and best practices.

  3.4 Wayfinding Sign Content, Artworking, & Implementation Approach

  Describe your team’s approach to sign content, artworking, and implementation, addressing the following:

  • Describe your overall approach to integration of GIS-based systems and graphic content creation.
  • Describe your approach to physical wayfinding asset design toward system accessibility.
  • Describe your approach to integrating QA/QC processes into wayfinding sign content development and implementation phases.

  3.5 Wayfinding Data and Asset Management

  • Describe your approach to wayfinding system asset management that integrates location-based data with sign-specific information and existing conditions.
  • Describe your knowledge of or experience in integration and coordination across asset management systems.
• Inclusion Plan (10 pts) —

  4. Inclusion Plan (10 Points)

  You must submit the following in your response.

  Click on the following link to open the Consultant Inclusion Plan: http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/FAS/PurchasingAndContracting/WMBE/fas-cpcs-consultant-inclusion-plan.docx

  Follow the WMBE inclusion plan form to share:

  a) Your goal for the percentage of the contract to go to women and minority-owned

  businesses, focusing on core functions as outlined above

  b) Your past experience working with small and diverse businesses, including three past examples as possible, and

  c) Your inclusion strategies to ensure you meet the proposed goal.

• Interviews (100 pts)

Submission Requirements

• Mandatory - Consultant Questionnaire (required) —

  Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.

• Letter of Interest (Page Limit - One Page Single Sided)
• Mandatory - Proof of Legal Business Name (Page Limit - One Page Single Sided) (required) —

  Provide a certificate or documentation from the Secretary of State in which you incorporated that shows your company legal name. Many companies use a “Doing Business As” name or nickname in daily business; the City requires the legal name for your company. When preparing all forms below, use the proper company legal name. Your company’s legal name can be verified through the State Corporation Commission in the state in which you were established, which is often located within the Secretary of State’s Office for each state. see http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/ for corporations and https://www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities for non-profits.

• Mandatory - Minimum Qualifications (Page Limit - 3 Pages Single Sided) (required) —

  Provide up to 3 pages that lists each Minimum Qualification, and exactly how you achieve each minimum qualification. Remember that the determination you have achieved all the minimum qualifications is made from this page. The evaluation committee is not obligated to check references or search other materials to make this decision.

• Mandatory - Inclusion Plan (required) —

  You must submit the following in your response.

  Click on the following link to open the Consultant Inclusion Plan: http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/FAS/PurchasingAndContracting/WMBE/fas-cpcs-consultant-inclusion-plan.docx

  Follow the WMBE inclusion plan form to share:

  a) Your goal for the percentage of the contract to go to women and minority-owned

  businesses, focusing on core functions as outlined above

  b) Your past experience working with small and diverse businesses, including three past

  examples as possible, and

  c) Your inclusion strategies to ensure you meet the proposed goal.

• Mandatory - Proposal Response (Page Limit - 23 Pages Single Sided) (required) —

  This document details the submittal requirements for your proposal response. For RFQ solicitations, this is a qualifications-based solicitation where the City will evaluate submittals using the criteria outlined here. Submittals will be evaluated, scored and ranked.

• Mandatory - Reference Checks (required) —

  Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.

• Pricing Proposal (required)
• Pricing (required) —
  • Choose Option 1 when you have set line items, for example:
    • This is a quote for goods or commodities.
    • This is a public works bid, with a pricing table that can be uploaded into OpenGov Procurement from an Excel spreadsheet.
    • Seeking services for hourly rate schedules.
  • Choose Option 2 when you need vendors to provide you with the line items. 
• Will this solicitation be awarded based on Evaluation Criteria/Committee? (required)