City seeks design-build team for borough jail project

A rendering of the borough-based jail in Kew Gardens. Image courtesy of MOCJ.

By Jonathan Sperling

The city’s Department of Design and Construction announced a major step forward in the borough-based jails project on Thursday, issuing a Request for Qualifications for the design-build teams that will construct four new borough-based jails, including one in Kew Gardens.

Up to three vendors will be short-listed per project after the city evaluates each vendors’ Statement of Qualifications, or SOQ. As a sort of screening process, the design-build teams must respond to the RFQ and meet qualification criteria before being able to submit responses to a future proposal request. That step is known as a Request for Proposals, or RFP.

“The firms eventually selected to design and build our new facilities have a tremendous opportunity to impact the lives of DOC staff, individuals in custody, volunteers and visitors,” Department of Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann said in a statement. “We want these new jails to reflect the very best in modern correctional practice, and New Yorkers expect and deserve nothing less.”

The DDC said it anticipates seven total design-build contracts, three for work in Brooklyn and Queens related to demolition work and four for the teams that will design and construct the four borough-based Jails themselves.

The DDC issued the RFQ on behalf of Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and NYC Department of Corrections. MOCJ Director Elizabeth Glazer said in a statement that the agency was looking “forward to submissions that reflect both the quality and innovation that these buildings deserve and the magnitude of the transformation of the criminal justice system.”

“Rarely does the architectural design and construction community get an opportunity to create

important civic buildings that can have a positive lasting effect on the life of the city,” Glazer added.