Five applications received, will be reviewed on Jan. 13

By Theresa Knapp 

In December, five design firms responded to the Request for Services (RFS) to design the new Milford High School. 

At a meeting of the MHS Building Committee on Dec. 17, owner project manager James Riefstahl of Next Level OPM told the committee the RFS had gone live on Nov. 19, 50 firms requested information, 10 firms showed up at the designer briefing session on Nov. 26, and five submissions were received by the Dec. 17 due date. 

Those firms include HMFH Architects, JCJ Architecture, Kaestle Boos Associates, MDS Architects/Sasaki, and Tappé Architects. 

A committee member asked Riefstahl if receiving a handful of applications was “normal” for this type of project. 

“For this size of a project, that is perfectly fine,” said Riefstahl. “The reality is that this school is complex in the sense that, one, it’s a high school; two, it’s vocational that they’re adding – that limits the number of firms that have experience doing those two things. The five that we got is actually pretty darned good.” 

Riefstahl noted that, regarding vocational schools in Massachusetts, “I can tell you three of them get 90% of the work” and two of them submitted applications for the MHS project. 

Next, the project’s Designer Selection Panel (DSP) will meet on Jan. 13 to discuss and rank the applicants. DSP members will use ballots to rank their top three choices, the ballots will be tallied, and the top three designers will be invited to interview. 

Riefstahl said the DSP will hold shortlisted interviews on Jan. 27, and make a final selection at that time.  

The Designer Selection Panel is composed of 13 members appointed by the MSBA. Milford’s “three members proposed by the respective city/town/district” will be Chris Wilson to represent the School Committee, Craig Consigli to represent the Superintendent of Schools or the Superintendent’s designee, and Mike Walsh to represent the CEO/Select Board of the town.  

The new designer will be introduced to the MHS Building Committee at its Feb. 4 meeting.  

A recording of the Dec. 17 meeting can be found at youtube.com/mymilfordtv

Many project documents can be found at milfordpublicschools.com/about/mhs-school-building-project