Tomorrowland Real Estate (TRE) recently acquired a vacant lot in SoHo, New York and sent out a request for proposal (RFP) for a mixed-use building to 5 architecture firms but only 4 submitted their proposal as one office declined the invitation due to the lack of staffing. After internal review and a series of interviews, TRE decided that spAce, a young promising design studio based in Brooklyn, had the best proposal overall. After several weeks of negotiations with a few developers, TRE finally decided to hire SilverSpoon Properties to act as their agent.

The program is as follows:

Below-grade: parking (30,000 sf)

Ground floor: commercial kitchen for delivery-only restaurants (2,000 sf) and a private middle school (80,000 sf).

Upper floors: shared amenities including gym, spa and pool (20,000 sf) and spec office (250,000 sf). The school program includes classrooms, an auditorium, a gym, a library, a cafeteria and storage rooms.

SilverSpoon, together with the owner and spAce, is starting to put together the design team. The following roles are defined: spAce will be the architect of record and responsible for the core and shell + retail and amenities interiors. As the Architect of Record (AOR), they will retain the services of DeltaTek for mechanical and electrical engineering services.  Structural and enclosure consultants – TKO and Warren More Associates, respectively – are also to be retained by the AOR. Lastly, WaterWorks will be providing plumbing engineering services, contractually under spAce.  The owner will retain the services of civil and geotechnical engineering from TKO and the landscaping services from Hardscoop. Peter Graves will be the architect responsible for the office interiors and SANEE+ will be the architect responsible for the school interiors. They are both retained by the owner. 

spAce’s team for this project in the SD and DD phases consist of 8 people: Matt is the project director, Dana, Jason F. and Michael are project architects, Jason G. and Jeremy are junior designers. Francesca (enclosure specialist) and Alice (code specialist) are invested in this project (as well as many other in the office) with an advisory role and only invest 5% of their time to this project. Matt is currently overseeing 3 other projects and he divides his time equally between all of them. Dana and Jason F. still dedicate 20% of their time to another project in the CA phase and all other team members are fully dedicated to this project. Their hourly billing rates are as follows: Matt – $250, Dana, Jason F. and Michael – $200, Francesca and Alice – $150. Jason G and Jeremy – $100.

SD phase started in May 2019 and construction is due to be done by October 2021.

The following contracts are used in this project:

A101–2017, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Contractor where the basis of payment is a Stipulated Sum

A201–2017, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction

B101–2017, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Architect

C401-2017, Standard Form of Agreement Between Architect and Consultant

C103–2015, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Consultant without a Predefined Scope of Consultant’s Services

A151–2007, Standard Form of Agreement Between Owner and Vendor for Furniture, Furnishings and Equipment where the basis of payment is a Stipulated Sum

A251–2007 (formerly A275ID–2003), General Conditions of the Contract for Furniture, Furnishings and Equipment.