Search is over for the design of Senate’s new home

After months of deliberation, the Senate finally has a new architectural design for our new home. Congratulations to AECOM for this amazing concept.

A post shared by Sherwin Gatchalian (@stgatchalian74) on May 28, 2018 at 1:29am PDT

The search for the design of the new Senate home at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig is over.

On Monday, the panel tasked to oversee the construction of the Senate’s new home, named AECOM as the winner of the Global Conceptual Design Competition for the New Home of the Philippine Senate.

The architectural firm bested four other finalists, namely Leeser Architecture, Aidea Inc., Henning Larsen Architects, and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate committee on accounts, reported the results of the competition at the Senate floor.  He said a total of 40 architectural firms — 24 foreign and 16 local companies — submitted their expression of interest (EOIs) to participate in the competition, but only five finalists were chosen last March 23.

The proposals of the all five firms, he said, were judged using a “comprehensive” scoring system: 40% technical score, 5% people’s choice, and 55% executive ranking.

Lacson explained that the proposed designs were evaluated by the Technical Evaluation Committee, officials of the Bases and Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), the senators and the senate community. He said AECOM won by a mere 0.36-point difference from the committee’s second choice.

“AECOM will have the opportunity to undertake the Detailed Architectural Design of the Project upon successful selection of the Design and Build Contractor by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the development of the new Senate building,” Lacson said.

The senator earlier reported that the Senate and the BCDA signed on January 3 a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition and purchase of 18,320 square meters of land at the Navy Village Property at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Under the MOU, the Senate was given the option to purchase the BCDA property within one year “subject to the obligation of the latter to relocate the current occupants, with not more than P90,000 per square meter as purchase price.”

Lacson said the road map for the Senate relocation is divided into five major stages: project planning and land acquisition, conceptual design, procurement of design and build package, construction and commissioning, and procurement and installation of fixtures.

If the detailed architectural and engineering design and construction would be awarded to the winning bidder this year, the construction and commissioning phase or the fourth stage of the project road map could start next year.

“Thus, we are looking on a timeline of two years for the construction of the new Senate Building or from January 2019 to December 2020,” Lacson said in a report last March. /ee

READ: New Senate home will be iconic, world-class, says Lacson