Professional Design Services

The City of West Des Moines, Iowa, is seeking professional architectural, landscape architectural, engineering, planning, public engagement, cost estimating, and related design services for the Heritage Center. The agency needs to establish the programmatic, spatial, operational, and functional needs of the facility while planning the arrangement of cultural resources near the House. This project aims to create flexible outdoor gathering, education, and event spaces while integrating sustainable design, resilient infrastructure, and practical maintenance practices. The scope of work covers project initiation, existing conditions and data review, programming and visioning, public and stakeholder engagement, and conceptual design. The selected partner must also deliver schematic design, design development, historic preservation and interpretive planning, accessibility and universal design, and operations, maintenance, and lifecycle costing. Additionally, the agency requires a realistic project budget, a phased funding strategy, and an implementation plan aligned with the City Comprehensive Plan and applicable city goals. Eligible bidders must be onshore organizations based in the United States. The agency requires the performance of the work to be completed onsite in West Des Moines. The agency has not disclosed a specific budget and is looking for cost proposals to determine the financial framework. The agency will host a pre-bid meeting on July 8, 2026. Bidders must submit all questions regarding this opportunity no later than July 10, 2026. The evaluation criteria will focus on the bidder's ability to support strong public engagement, incorporate universal design, and deliver a plan that can be implemented in phases as funding becomes available.