Five firms submit downtown Carson City designs

Five companies with Northern Nevada ties, two in Carson City, are the lead firms in competing submissions to handle designs and work for a downtown rejuvenation project.

Resources Concepts, Inc. (RCI) is located in Carson City and Lumos & Associates has several Northern Nevada offices, one in the state’s capital, while CFA, Stantec and Atkins all have offices in Reno. The submittals in several cases, according to Public Works Director Darren Schulz, involve “‘joint ventures,’ if you will, comprising several consultants making up the team.” He said there are what he called “sub-consultants” involved.

Schulz said he can’t yet share the actual proposals with the public until after a screening process due to proprietary information contained within them that could help or hinder another of the consultants, but a short list will be determined by year’s end and interviews will begin on Jan. 6, 2015. After determination of a short list by a city review team a choice to recommend will be made and the short list released as the recommendation goes forward.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to deal with that recommendation after that review process, perhaps at a meeting in early February according to current plans.

RCI is a multidisciplinary consulting firm with offices in Carson City and Zephyr Cove. Lumos, also multidisciplinary, has offices here, two in Reno and one at Stateline at the south end of Lake Tahoe. CFA, another with multidisciplinary aspects, is in Reno and operates throughout the region. Stantec and Atkins, according to Schulz, are worldwide firms with offices in Reno as well.

Stantec bills itself as designing projects with community in mind and boasts 14,000 personnel in multiple locations. Atkins shows locations in North America, the Asia Pacific Region and the Mideast, with offices in 27 states and Puerto Rico.

Designs should be keyed to a three-lane Carson Street with wider sidewalks and other amenities, an eventual upgrade later on Curry Street, and a plaza sooner between those two streets on a closed West 3rd street downtown.