Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture Will Design Olathe Community Center
Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture (BRS) of Denver, in association with SFS Architecture of Kansas City, Mo., has won a national design competition for the new Olathe Community Center planned for Olathe, Kan. BRS will serve as the architect-of-record and design architect, with SFS as associate architect.
With total funding established at $22.5 million, the current construction budget for the 60,000-sq-ft project stands at $16.5 million. The site for the Olathe Community Center is planned at Stagecoach Park, bordered by Kansas City Road and Ridgeview Road.
The Olathe City Council wants a modern building that ties into the existing fabric of the Olathe community with a façade composed primarily of wood and stone. The center will include a gymnasium, fitness center, indoor aquatics, community rooms, “outdoor living room” spaces, an amphitheater and great lawn.
The final selection of the team led by BRS and SFS marked the end of a multistage selection process that began with an open RFQ inviting firms to submit their qualifications for design of the community center. Subsequently, Olathe City Council narrowed the selection to a shortlist of three teams, inviting each to submit a proposed conceptual design in response to an RFP.
Finally, each of the finalist firms was invited to present its qualifications and design concepts as well as field questions before the city council. A final decision to hire the BRS-led team was made within two weeks of the presentation date.
The winning team includes landscape architect Confluence of Kansas City, Mo.; mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer Henderson Engineers Inc., Lenexa, Kan.; structural engineer GBA, also of Lenexa; civil engineer SK Design Group Inc., Overland Park, Kan.; and aquatic consultant Water Technology Inc. of Beaver Dam, Wis. Kansas-City-based McCownGordon Construction has been selected as construction manager.
