Professional Architectural/Engineering Consultant Services for Seattle Animal Shelter Design

The City of Seattle is seeking qualifications for Professional Architectural/Engineering Consultant Services for Seattle Animal Shelter Design. Qualifications are due no later than 5:00 pm on Thursday, June 25, 2026. All questions are to be submitted through the e-procurement portal at https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/seattle no later than 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

The City of Seattle Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS), Capital Development Division (CD) is initiating planning for a new approximately 50,000 square foot Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) on City-owned property. The new facility will replace the existing Interbay shelter, which no longer meets operational, capacity, or community needs. The project will create a modern, purpose-built facility that reflects best practices in animal welfare, expands veterinary and community services, and provides a safe, welcoming environment for animals, staff, volunteers, and the public. In addition, site planning will also account for potential co-location of the Seattle Police Department’s Canine (K9) Unit, which will require physically separated indoor and outdoor spaces. Through this RFQ, the City seeks an experienced architectural consultant team to lead programming and predesign, refine space requirements, assess site and operational considerations, and support public engagement to establish a strong foundation for future design. 

Project Details

• Reference ID: CD 2026-018
• Department: Finance and Administrative Services
• Department Head: Kiersten Grove (Acting Director)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-05-27T00:00:00.000Z
• Pre-Proposal Meeting: 2026-05-21T20:00:00.000Z — https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/213504687369846?p=xA27QudbgwEfJ9p3Hd

Evaluation Criteria

• Consultant Evaluation (30 pts) —
  • Provide a detailed consultant team organizational chart that identifies key team members, their relevant experience, primary roles and responsibilities on this project, and the anticipated level of effort (e.g., estimated hours per month) throughout the project. 
  • Describe the team’s ability to adequately staff the project through all phases, including construction, and to meet challenging schedule requirements.  
  • Discuss key team members’ experience presenting to and obtaining approvals from the Seattle Design Commission or other comparable design review bodies that advise and provide oversight to ensure design quality, functionality, and public benefit.  
  • Describe the prime consultant’s and lead subconsultants' experience providing design services to public agencies for projects of similar scale & complexity using the design-bid-build delivery method.   
  • Describe the consultant team’s demonstrated practice of sustainable and resilient design that enhances interior and exterior environmental quality, long-term operational efficiency, and building longevity. List all USGBC-accredited team members.  
• Demonstration of Quality & Relevant Work (30 pts) —

  • Provide firm experience (within the past 10 years) demonstrating the design and construction of projects of similar scale and complexity to this animal shelter project. For each relevant project cited in this section, describe the specific role each proposed team member played. Do not include projects completed by individuals at your firm who are not part of the proposed project team.  

  • Provide evidence of sustainable design practice, including experience with sustainability goals such as LEED certification, fossil-free design, net zero design, energy code compliance, energy modeling, and other USGBC-certified projects.  Additionally, please highlight any experience your team has with incorporating mass timber into their designs.

  • Provide examples of designs that successfully incorporate programmatic needs, including functionality, aesthetics, community input, design review board feedback, public art integration, and long-term operations and maintenance considerations. One or more projects may be cited to meet these criteria.  

• Professional Practice Approach (25 pts) —
  • Describe your team’s approach for managing stakeholders, including community engagement, coordination with consultants, and reconciling competing priorities to ensure all stakeholder needs are effectively addressed.  
  • Describe your team’s approach and methodology to achieve the highest design, quality of work, and project sustainability while optimizing functionality and long-term operational efficiency.   Include example(s) of expanding the core team’s expertise through working with outside subject matter experts. 
  • Describe your team’s internal quality assurance/quality control processes and their successful application to value engineering, schedule performance, and the delivery of highly coordinated bid documents. Provide examples of problems encountered on past projects and explain how solutions were developed and implemented.  
  • Provide a communications plan that describes how the team will respond to planned, unplanned, and emergent situations that require the presence of core team members at City offices or at the project site (at no additional cost to the City).
• WMBE Inclusion Plan (15 pts) —

  Core work may include but is not limited to the following disciplines or functions: 

  • Architectural
  • Structural
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Plumbing
  • Civil
  • Landscape
  • Cost Estimating
  • Scheduling
  • Public Engagement

  Points are awarded for responses that evidence: 

  • Responsible good faith efforts 
  • Meaningful and attainable self-set aspirational goals, which are consistent with Consultant Team strategy 
  • WMBE firms integrated into the team and within core work 
  • WMBE firms integrated within value-added work opportunities 
  • Evidence of strong past performance using effective models 

  Evidence of effective mentoring, training, or capacity-building 

• Interview (if applicable) (100 pts)

Submission Requirements

• Statement of Qualifications* (required) —

  The response materials shall be 8-1/2” x11” in format, double sided, and no more than ten (10) pages [twenty (20) surfaces excluding covers, tabs and the City’s mandatory forms.]  The response materials should include:

  • Letter of Interest. Letters are encouraged to summarize interest in the project.
  • Refer to 10. Evaluation Section, Phase 1 in the Project Documents tab for guidance on minimum qualifications criteria.
  • Refer to 10. Evaluation Section, Phase 2 in the Project Documents tab for guidance on evaluation criteria.
  • Additional submittal requirements:
  • • Prime consultant must provide a list of at least two (2) references each from clients, contractors, and subconsultants that have worked with the Prime in the last 10 years, for a total of six (6) references. The list must include contact name, phone number and address and name of the project(s). Indicate how long the Prime has worked with each reference and in what capacity.  
    • Where applicable, the team must provide a complete list of construction projects (last 10 years) in which the General Contractor made a claim that resulted in arbitration, mediation, or lawsuit. Consultant must indicate what steps it routinely takes to prevent and resolve claims and/or support Owner’s efforts in claims resolution and how these steps were used on the listed projects. 

  *Response required

• Consultant Inclusion Plan - Mandatory Form (required) —

  Please download the below documents, complete, and upload.

  • Consultant_Inclusion_Plan.pdf

  * Response Required

• Consultant Questionnaire - Mandatory Form* (required) —

  Please download the below document, complete, and upload. 

  Provide information to the extent this information is available. If your response is incomplete or requires further description, the City may request additional information within a specified deadline, or may determine the missing information is immaterial.  

  • fas-cpcs-consultant-questio...

  *Response required

• Proof of Legal Business Name - Mandatory Document* (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. For the State of Washington, see http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/

  *Response required

• Will there be minimum qualifications? (required) —

  Are there qualifications the Consultants must have to even be considered?  Minimum qualifications should ONLY be those that the Consultant must meet to have their proposal considered, meaning you will toss the proposal out in full if the Consultant cannot meet the minimum qualifications. 

  Minimum qualifications can sometimes be important, such as a professional license.  If you require a Minimum Qualification, ensure it is fair, appropriate and reasonable. Consultants can protest these if they seem exclusionary and unnecessary.  In addition, some federal requirements may restrict or prohibit the use of such qualifications. Review the terms of the grant to ensure compliance with all such requirements. Minimum Qualifications are only for factual yes/no items which can be easily proven as a matter of fact and on the face of the RFQ response.  These are NOT subjective such as “Company needs to be experienced” or “needs to have good references.”  These are instead hard and fast criteria we check off “yes or no,” and we will toss them out without further consideration if they say no.

• Will a Consultant Inclusion Plan be needed? (required) —

  Note to department – All non-federally funded contracts above $395,000 require an Inclusion Plan. If potential work, including all phases, is above $395,000, retain the Inclusion Plan as a required submittal. The Mayor’s 2010 policy requires you to score the WMBE response, for no less than 10% of total points.

  Departments are encouraged to list the core Scope of Work items that the department has determined to be available for subcontracting.

  Contracts with FEDERAL FUNDING may require different or additional social equity requirements, such as federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) requirements, which are required for US DOT funded projects, such as FTA projects.  

  Exceptions: Exceptions to the Inclusion Plan requirement are rare. Departments must notify their WMBE IDT representative and PC for a review and written approval of an exception. An exception does not relieve the Consultant of its responsibilities to seek WMBE inclusion if changes to the contract provides opportunities for WMBE inclusion.

  For assistance, contact Miguel Beltran at Miguel.Beltran@Seattle.gov or 206-684-4525.

• Are you open to negotiating the standard contract terms and conditions? (required)
• Is this RFQ for architecture or engineering services per RCW 39.80? (required) —

  State law requires the City to select the firm deemed to be the most highly qualified to provide A&E services. The City cannot ask for pricing before selecting the most highly qualified vendor. 

  Per RCW 18.08.320, Architecture includes: the rendering of any service or related work requiring architectural education, training, and experience, in connection with the art and science of building design for construction of any structure or grouping of structures and the use of space within and surrounding the structures or the design for construction of alterations or additions to the structures, including but not specifically limited to predesign services, schematic design, design development, preparation of construction contract documents, and administration of the construction contract. 

  Per RCW 18.43.020, Engineering is any professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, training, and experience and the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design, and supervision of construction for the purpose of assuring compliance with specifications and design, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works, or projects. 

  Per RCW 18.96, Landscape Architecture is the rendering of professional services in connection with consultations, investigations, reconnaissance, research, planning, design, construction document preparation, construction administration, or teaching supervision in connection with the development of land areas where, and to the extent that, the dominant purpose of such services is the preservation, enhancement, or determination of proper land uses, natural land features, ground cover and planting, naturalistic and aesthetic values, the settings and approaches to structures or other improvements, or natural drainage and erosion control. This practice includes the location, design, and arrangement of such tangible objects as pools, walls, steps, trellises, canopies, and such features as are incidental and necessary to the purposes in this chapter. Landscape architecture involves the design and arrangement of land forms and the development of outdoor space including, but not limited to, the design of public parks, trails, playgrounds, cemeteries, home and school grounds, and the development of industrial and recreational sites.