Guide to Innovative RFPs - Mayors' Institute on City Design

Guide to
Innovative RFPs

Putting the Principles for City Design Leadership into action

OVERVIEW

The Request for Proposals (RFP) is one of the most consequential tools a city has to translate values into real-world outcomes, guiding how resources are awarded, services are procured, and partners are selected. Informed by a national scan of successful RFPs, the Guide to Innovative RFPs offers a roadmap for designing and delivering more impactful design and development projects.

Explore the Guide

01 | RFPs and the Principles for City Design Leadership

MICD’s five Principles for City Design Leadership can help guide the development of value-based RFPs that create maximum impact for your community.

02 | Elements of Good RFPs

Explore an illustrative timeline with key milestones for your engagement and RFP development process.

03 | Put it together!

Investing in creatively approaching your RFPs will result in projects that reflect your community’s values, priorities, and desired outcomes.

Key Takeaways

Takeaway 1
Takeaway 2
Takeaway 3

Explore referenced projects

Hollice T. Williams Park, Pensacola, FL: After an overhauled community engagement process, this new park design is experiential, emphasizes equity and justice, and includes innovative stormwater infrastructure and landscape architecture practices. Read more
Invest South/West, Chicago, IL: Guided by the people who live and work within each community in Chicago, the INVEST South/West strategy has paved way for more than a dozen major mixed-use projects, comprehensive public realm enhancements, new cultural installations, and a pipeline of financial grants for small businesses and emerging developers that will resonate for generations to come. Read more
Brush Park, Detroit, MI: Featuring over 400 residential units distributed amongst approximately 20 buildings, the Brush Park RFP made use of its proximity to Downtown Detroit and Midtown, major sports stadiums, parks and entertainment, as well as the city’s Central Business District to maximize density and bring vacant parcels of land back online. Read more
Boston Design Vision, Boston, MA: The City of Boston Planning Department’s Urban Design Division engaged with hundreds of Bostonians about what they love most about their neighborhoods to better understand what “good design” means to the people who call Boston home. Read more
NW Rubber Site, McMinniville, OR: After purchasing a 3.6-acre industrial site in the NE Gateway District, the city sought a development partner to build a mixed-use commercial and residential development to revitalize this city center industrial neighborhood into a vibrant commercial and residential district. Read more
Englewood Agro District, Chicago, IL: This nearly 2-mile rails-to-trails project in a historically underinvested community is exploring a Public-Common partnership (PCP), as an economic development strategy in which wealth created is shared by the community, rather than solely with the private sector or government. Read more

Principles of City Design Leadership

Lead

with design

Design

for meaningful change across your city

01 Lead

to improve people's lives

Design

to connect communities

02 Lead

for economic opportunity

Design

to create and capture value

03 Lead

to foster health + resiliency

Design

to create a beautiful city

04 Lead

collaboratively

Design

for all

05

let’s talk

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Our team is happy to help you strategize ways to utilize these resources. Contact our office to set up a time to discuss.

MICD is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, MICD has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities.