Strategic Opportunities Committee - Communiqué 6

ORC Extends RFQ for Architects and Interior Designers

Changes and Clarifications Coming in Response to Industry Feedback

The Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) has extended the closing for the province-wide Request for Qualifications for interior designers and architects until October 31, 2008.

ORC is a major client of the design and construction industry in Ontario, last year managing more than 2,000 projects worth over $350M.

ORC has been collaborating with the design and construction industry through the Strategic Opportunities Committee (SOC), a standing liaison group, in revamping its business model for project delivery. ORC’s objective is to get better value from the industry by more closely aligning itself with industry standard practices and contracts, creating more opportunities for design and construction businesses and attracting greater industry participation.

Continued feedback through this committee is leading to some clarifications and changes to this RFQ process.

ORC has clarified that consulting engineers do not need to prequalify through this current RFQ process. Architects and interior designers who are prime consultants on ORC projects will assemble their own project teams, including consulting engineers, as they have in the past. They will not be required to select their team members from an ORC pre-qualified list.

A prequalification for consulting engineers is anticipated later this Fall to create a consulting engineer Vendor of Record list which will be used by ORC and its project management service providers to select consulting engineers where they will be prime consultants on projects that are primarily engineering.

Concerns were raised through SOC about the need for architects and interior designers to obtain a letter of good standing from their associations as part of this RFQ submission. It was noted that this creates considerable burden for both applicants and their associations. ORC has worked out an arrangement with the Ontario Association of Architects and the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO) to confirm the membership status of applicants directly. As a result, ORC is eliminating the need for every applicant to obtain a letter of good standing.

It is also being clarified that both architects and interior designers can qualify as the Project Lead for interior design consultants.

This RFQ already reflects major changes arising from the SOC collaboration with the industry, including a significant reduction in the amount of information required from applicants, and thus, the time it takes applicants to complete their submissions.

ARIDO President Franca Rezza had this to say about the streamlined RFQ: “We support the collaborative approach that the ORC has taken in the development of this RFQ and share its objectives of enabling better run, more cost effective projects with a goal to providing better design and construction outcomes in order to best serve their client ministries. The simplified prequalification process for designers and architects will allow a wide range of firms to have competitive opportunities within this sector; firms from a variety of backgrounds and geographic regions with different knowledge bases.”

An RFQ for general contractors is also open, with a closing date of October 24, 2008.

Full details on the RFQ’s can be found at www.ontariorealty.ca.

The Ontario Realty Corporation is a crown corporation of the Government of Ontario and strategically manages one of Canada’s largest real estate portfolios: around 6,000 buildings, comprising some 50-million square feet of space, and 95,000 acres of land on behalf of the Ontario government. ORC believes that moving to industry standards such as contracts will improve its results.

The Strategic Opportunities Committee (SOC) was initiated in 2004 and re-energized in 2008 at the invitation of ORC, to facilitate constructive consultation between ORC and the design and construction industry. Participants in this standing liaison committee include Consulting Engineers of Ontario, the Ontario General Contractors Association, the Ontario Association of Architects and the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario, as well as executives and management from the ORC itself. The Committee currently has three working groups focusing on standard contracts; prequalification, evaluation and procurement; and, improvements to ORC’s outsourced project management model.