Chapter 4: Design

Identifying The Right Designer
The importance of design will have a significant impact on the facility’s longevity as a healthy, vibrant place. Finding the designer for delivering on that promise is no easy task. The most powerful process that a steering committee has is the Request For Qualifications, or RFQ. This is a common process for all agencies and companies that rely upon any internal auditing. The RFQ essentially asks many different vendors—in this case designers—to submit a list of their accomplishments and experience designing similar projects to your intended skatepark.

Those that meet the threshold for quality and expertise are retained for consideration. Those that do not meet the standards are considered unqualified for the particular job and are removed from further consideration.

This process allows for a technical assessment of the firms competing for your business and prevents eager—but unqualified—vendors from using your hard-earned time and money to try to turn your vision into a reality. The crafting of and responses to the RFQ is one of the very last stages in the entire skatepark creation process and prevents something from going drastically wrong. The RFQ will narrow down the type of vendors you want to compete for your business and excludes those that have a record of not delivering successful skateparks.

When a vendor’s qualifications are submitted back to the agency tasked with managing the RFQ process, usually the Parks Department, they will be compared to the criteria. Those that match or exceed the minimum requirements are allowed to continue and bid for the job while those that don’t meet the minimum requirements are removed from the running. The design project goes to bid (by sending out a Request For Proposal, or RFP), and those designers who have been pre-qualified to bid on the project then are briefed on the scope of the proposal (the new skatepark) and each submit a fee for their involvement. Usually the lowest bidder is awarded the job. This company is your skatepark designer.