Medical Mart Architects Chosen - LMN Architects of Seattle: Cleveland.com

I feel this is a great choice, and its great to see continuing progress.

Repost from Cleveland.com:

LMN Architects of Seattle chosen by Cuyahoga County and MMPI Inc. to design medical mart and convention center in Cleveland

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

LMN ArchitectsA 2003 rendering shows a proposal made that year by LMN Architects for a renovation of the Cleveland Convention Center.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Patience has paid off for LMN Architects. Today, the Seattle-based architecture firm will be named conceptual designer of what Cleveland hopes will be the nation's first medical mart, plus a rebuilt Cleveland convention center. The firm has sought on and off for 11 years to design a new convention center in Cleveland. 

Jeffrey Appelbaum, an attorney hired by Cuyahoga County to assist the project, said he will announce at a meeting of the Cuyahoga County Commissioners that the county and MMPI Inc. of Chicago made the choice to go with LMN over two other finalists for the project.

MMPI is the county's private partner in the project to build the medical mart, a year-round showroom for medical devices, and to rebuild the outmoded, substandard convention center.

The decision marks a major milestone for the long-delayed project. The medical mart has been under discussion in Cleveland since 2005.

The project will be funded with help from $425 million in revenue from a 20-year, quarter cent increase in the county sales tax, imposed by the commissioners in 2007.

The Cleveland facility, scheduled to open in 2013, is in a race with facilities proposed in New York and Nashville, scheduled to open in 2013 and in about 18 months, respectively.

According to an agreement between the county and MMPI, negotiated by Appelbaum and approved by both parties in January, design work on the medical mart and convention center will begin swiftly once the site for the project is under control.

County Adminstrator Jim McCafferty said earlier this week that the county is in the final stages of negotiating the acquisition of several privately owned properties west of Mall B, where the medical mart will be located. The facility will connect underground to the rebuilt convention center, under Malls B and C.

LMN has been involved in discussions over the future of Cleveland's convention center for 11 years and has worked on at least two other major efforts to envision how the city's convention center, located below Malls B and C downtown, could be rebuilt in place.

The decision to hire LMN means that Valerio Dewalt Train, the Chicago architecture firm originally hired by MMPI to conduct due diligence in earlier stages of the project, will not get the big job, Appelbaum said.

LMN ArchitectsA model built in 2000 shows a proposal made by LMN Architects for the renovation of the Cleveland Convention Center. The center's roof, which doubles as the surface of the downtown Mall, would have been supported by catenary cables strung from towers on either side of the Mall.The decision also means that LMN will be in a position to realize millions of dollars of fees from one of the biggest design jobs in recent Cleveland history.

Appelbaum said he wouldn't name a specific figure until details had been negotiated with the firm, but offered to give an order of magnitude later today.

LMN is an award-winning firm known primarily in the Pacific Northwest and California for designing new or renovated convention centers and public assembly spaces such as Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.

The firm designed the recently completed eastern section of the Vancouver Convention Center, which is adjacent to the more widely recognized Canada Place convention center featured in broadcast coverage of the winter Olympics. That building, which features a white, tent-like roof, was designed by the leading Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler.

As conceptual architect, LMN will handle the first two phases of a three-step design process.

First come schematic and design development drawings, which will bring the design to roughly two thirds completion.

At that point, Appelbaum said, a design-build contractor will hire a separate "architect of record" to bring the design to 100 percent completion.

Under this arrangement, LMN will be responsible to MMPI and the county, ensuring greater control over the quality of the final product, Appelbaum said.

The architect of record will be responsible for completing the highly detailed final blueprints from which the project will be built and will answer directly to the design-build contractor.

Appelbaum said the county and MMPI have issued a request-for-qualifications notification for the design-builder, and have received at least eight applications.

MMPI and the county will soon choose the contractor, Appelbaum said.