City Council Minutes 08-20-1984
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MI UTES
SPECIAL MEETING - M NTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
August 20, 1 84 - 4:30 P.M.
Members Present: Arve A. Grimsm , Jack Maxwell, Fran Fair,
Dan Blonigen, en Maus.
Members Absent: None.
A special meeting of the City Co ncil was duly held at 4:30 P.M.
on Monday, August 20, 1984, in t e City Council Chambers for
the purpose of interviewing four firms as potential architects
for a proposed Fire Hall.
1. The Mayor called the meeting to rder and requested that Eidem
explain the process. Eidem indi ated that four firms had been
invited by the Council and that e had notified each of them
that they would have approximate y 20-30 minutes for their interview
of which the first 10-15 minutes would be available for the
firm's presentation, followed by questions. Representing the
firm of Carlson Mjorud Architect re Ltd. were Ai Mjorud, Bruce
Carlson, and William Rova. They began their presentation with
a slide show introducing their f'rm and a brief discussion of
how they would prepare the infor ation requested. As an example,
they discussed a fire hall desig for the City of Golden Valley
and when questioned indicated they anticipated current cost
would be in the range of $60.00 0 $65.00 per square foot.
Councilmember Blonigen asked the to address their experience
with energy conservation and specifically with radiant heat
systems. Mr. Carlson indicated that they were, in fact, familiar
with those systems and that they held energy conservation as
an important factor in any buil ing design. Mayor Grimsmo indicated
to the firm that the site selec ion process had taken a rather
different turn, and the City wa now considering the existing
Fire Hall location. The repres ntatives of the firm indicated
that they had assumed that eval ation of the existing site would
be part of the overall process. CMA indicated their pleasure
at being selected for an interv'ew and stated that they hoped
they would be chosen to do the roject. There being no further
questions, the CMA was excused.
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2.
Toltz, King, Duvall, Anderson a
to be interviewed. Representin
Hendrickson. Mr. Kasma and Mr.
15-20 minutes to introduce thei
a complete shop housing archit
planning, etc., and has been in
Hendrickson indicated that he w
the Monticello project and gave
systems and conservation. He i
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d Associates was the next firm
TKDA was Duane Kasma and Wes
Hendrickson utilized the first
firm, which they indicate is
cture, engineering, land use
operations for 75 years. Mr.
uld be the project manager on
a brief presentation on energy
dicated that energy conservation
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was a crucial aspect to their design. TKDA also presented a
brief slide show. When opened f r questions, Councilmember
Maus asked the typical cost of t. e most recent fire station
they had built. Their response as that it was approximately
$60 per square foot. Eidem aske the question as to what was
the corporate philosophy of the tility of a bUilding versus
the aesthetics of a building. M. Hendrickson responded that
there are three aspects to build'ng construction, those being
function, image, and cost. He sated that function is generally
clearly defined and that the ima e projected by the City would
have to conform to the cost or t e budget stipulated by the
City. He stated that their phil sophy of image or aesthetics
versus functional utility is def ned by the City's philosophy
of image and function. Councilm mber Blonigen asked what percentage
of total project cost comes in a change orders to the project.
Mr. Kasma responded that their h story has indicated that 1%
or less is in change order cost. There being no further questions,
Mr. Kasma provided some closing omments and indicated that
TKDA felt competent to address t e needs of Monticello and would
very much like to be selected. E dem asked what percentage of project cost
would be their fee for Phase 2. They stated 6~% - 7%.
3. Don Granholm and Jack Boarman of Boarman Architects came before
the Council for the third interv'ew of the evening. Mr. Boarman,
the owner and president of Boarm n Architects, indicated that
he would be the project manager n the Monticello job. He provided
approximately 10-15 minutes of i troduction to the firm, noting
that the consulting engineer tha they would utilize would be
Bakke Kopp Ballou & McFarlin. H stated that their firm had
done substantial research into s ccessful bond issue and had
assimilated that into a formula and process that had been successful.
Mr. Boarman indicated that they had designed 57 buildings since
1978, and that only one came in 0 er budget. Mr. Boarman volunteered
the information that the average hange orders are less than
one-half of 1% of project cost. r. Boarman noted that his
standard contract provides that t e architect redraws all plans
and specifications at his cost 'f bids come in over the established
budget. Mr. Boarman then provide some examples of fire halls
that they had designed and built. He spent considerable time
discussing energy conservation me hods and why he had adapted
certain methods from his experien e in Alaskan design. Doug
Pitt, representing the Fire Depar ment, noticed that one of
Boarman's designs, the Chanhassen Fire Hall, was built with
a gable roof. He wanted to know f that was something that
Boarman used in all their designs or was it unique to Chanhassen.
Mr. Boarman responded that that d sign was a result of three
conditions; namely, they had to m et a reduced budget, there
were time limitations and winter onstruction, and the site
location was highly residential a d, consequently, legislated
a building that would blend into he neighborhood. Eidem asked
Mr. Boarman his position with uti ity versus aesthetics. Mr.
3varman responded that design tal nt was the key to the aesthetics
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Council Minutes - Special Meeting - 8/20/84
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of a building. He stated in hi opinion that a building does
not have to cost a great deal 0 be lavishly designed to still
be a source of pride to the co unity. Councilmember Maus asked
Mr. Boarman to expand on their ackground in site selection.
Mr. Boarman indicated that he engaged Damon Farber, Land Use
Planner, to assist in the site s lection and that Mr. Farber
had established an objective met od of determining base criteria
when doing a site evaluation. C uncilmember Blonigen, referring
again to the Chanhassen Fire Hal , asked if there was a problem
of building fire halls out of wo d, that he had been led to
believe fire halls were always m sonry. Mr. Boarman indicated
that wood fire halls were perfec ly acceptable and that for
energy reasons, they would somet mes even be preferable. Councilmember
Fair asked if Boarman had an in- ouse engineer or utilized a
consultant. Mr. Boarman re-affi med his earlier comment that
they utilized Bakke Kopp Ballou McFarlin as a consulting firm,
but that he was the sole individ al responsible for design and
fOllow-up. There being no furth r questions, the interview
was concluded.
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4. The last party to appear for an 'nterview was Zack Johnson of
the Zack Johnson Group. Mr. Joh son provided approximately
10-15 minutes of introduction to his firm and a discussion of
design principles. He indicated that in various cities he had
assisted with the selling of a referendum and felt that he had
a competent method for selling the Monticello referendum. Mr.
Johnson also noted that he would ish to identify previous architects
for the City and the problems the City may have had with those
architects and buildings so as to avoid them from the very beginning.
At the conclusion of Mr. Johnson' introductory presentation,
Councilmember Fair asked about th amount of time that would
be spent on site inspecting const uction. Mr. Johnson indicated
that on a jOb of this size approx'mately 20% of their overall
time would be spent or 2-3 times er week. Again Eidem asked
the question about aesthetics ver us utility. Mr. Johnson responded
that he felt that the aesthetics nd the utility of a building
went hand-in-hand; that there was an obligation on the City
to present both a positive image ut to stay within budget showing
that they both were concerned for the image as well as the business
aspects of the construction. He ent on to say that in his
estimation, every city constructi n project makes a statement,
and that he feels the statement s ould be positive. Before
closing, Mr. Johnson discussed hi strong opinion that life
cycle costing is far more crucial to design than is up-front
construction cost. After his clo ing comments, the interviews
were concluded.
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Discussion was held amongst the Co ncil members relating to
site preference. Councilmember Fair indicated that her preference
still lies with Block 15 on the no th edge of the cemetery.
Her preference for that site, she 'ndicated, had to do with
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Council inutes - Special Meeting - 8/20/84
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the possibility of developing bo h the Fire Hall and perhaps
some open green areas that would front on 25. Other members
of the Council acknowledged that that site, while very low,
should be investigated to de term ne whether or not it is physically
developable without undue expens. Mayor Grimsmo noted that
that was a site that he had also liked from the beginning and
that there were substantial grow h limitations to developing
on the existing site. Motion by Fair, second by Maus, and carried
unanimously to direct staff to f rther investigate the feasibility
of constructing a Fire Hallock 15, said investigation
to include soil borings and ssions with Mr. Eck over the
possible acquisition of his
Each Council member then ranked he four firms that were interviewed,
with the individual rankings the being tallied up with the
final results as follows: 1st c oice, TKDA; 2nd, Boarman Architecture;
3rd, CMA; and 4th, Zack Johnson roup. Motion by Maus, second
by Maxwell, to engage TKDA as the Architectural Consulting Firm
for the construction of the proposed Monticello Fire Hall.
Voting in favor: Maxwell, Maus, rimsmo, Fair. Voting in opposition:
Blonigen.
There being no further business, he meeting was adjourned.
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Thomas A. Eid m
City Administrator
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