Renovation of a museum in Washington, District of Columbia. Completed plans call for the renovation of a museum.

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2022/09/16/jeff-bezos-smithsonian-air-space-museum.html The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum is narrowing in on the design for the Bezos Learning Center that's in the works for the National Mall attraction. Last year, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos -- who, lest you forget, is absolutely bonkers about space travel -- donated $130 million for the learning center and another $70 million to help pay for the museum's overall $1 billion renovation, which began in 2018. Five firms, which are not being identified at this point in the process, have submitted designs for the 50,000-square-foot learning center, which is set to replace the restaurant space on the east terrace of the museum. The Smithsonian has been taking public feedback on the designs this month, with comments closing Monday. A final plan is expected to be chosen next year. Construction is to start in 2024 and it will be likely be completed in 2026. You can take a peek at renderings of the five designs in the gallery above. The Bezos Learning Center will ultimately house programs and activities related to innovation and careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. It will include a ground-floor restaurant, second-floor space for programs and a third-floor terrace with views of the National Mall and U.S. Capitol. The larger renovation of the museum remains ongoing. On Oct. 14, half of the museum will reopen with eight new and renovated exhibitions. The museum's planetarium, museum store and Mars Cafe will also reopen all on the building's west end at that time. The museum closed to the public earlier this year to accelerate the renovation work. The Air and Space Museum welcomed 3.87 million visitors in 2019, down from 6.38 million in 2018 -- when it was the No. 2 most-visited tourist site in Greater Washington behind only the Lincoln Memorial, according to Washington Business Journal research. It welcomed just 267,003 visitors in 2020 amid closures related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It welcomed 410,658 visitors in 2021. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The RFP covers exhibitlimited design completion, fabrication, and installation for five state-of-the-art exhibitions and common areas located at the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. Thisi si primarlity an exhibit fabrication project. The base bid of five exhibits and common areas is about 50,000 sq feet. There are 5 priced options for an additional 5 exhibits (22,800 sq feet) and two unpriced options for 2 exhibits (10,000 sq ft). The exhibits have been designed to 65% completion and cover a range of aerospace topics including WWI, WWII, the space age, and a highly interactive gallery about how things fly. These are complex exhibits that consist of very large, large, medium, and small objects as well as graphics, casework, multimedia, tactiles, and mechanical interactives. **The design completion work will involve detailing the 65% design including verifying artifact dimensions and clearances, refining case dimensions, refinement of graphics quantities, detailing structural mounts, refining AV hardware and lighting and resolving conflicts and detailing base building infrastructure impacts and life safety modifications, and finalizing installation sequencing. This solicitation has a minimum requirement that the offeror must have served as the prime contractor on the fabrication of at least three complex museum exhibits in the past ten (10) years. One of the examples must be completed and must be larger than 35,000 sq-ft.; and one of the examples must be larger than 40,000 sq-ft. At least one of the projects cited must have had a final cost over $15 million dollars. A complex exhibit is defined as one that consists of museum objects (large and small), graphics and images, custom casework, tactile models, multimedia, interactives, security, lighting, and multiple subcontractors. Subcontractor performance cannot satisfy the minimum requirement for the prime contractor. Teaming arrangements where more than one firm combines experience to meet the minimum requirements will not be accepted. Bidders who have the minimum requirement experience detailed above, can obtain a copy of the RFP and attachments by signing the attached Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Note that the contents of this RFP are proprietary. Email a signed NDA for everyone who will review the documents. Bidders should not share the documents with anyone who has not signed the NDA. To obtain a copy of the solicitation, include signed NDAs via email to berked@si.edu. Each firm bidding should send one email containing all the signed NDAs rather than numerous emails from each staff. After review of the NDA, bidders will be sent a copy of the RFP and a link to the attachments on or around May 4, 2021. A Virtual Site visit is scheduled for Monday, May 10, 2021 3:00 pm EST. In person site visit scheduled for Friday, May 14, 2021 2:30 pm EST. One representative per bidder can attend the in-person site visit. Details on both site visits are included in the RFP documents.