Park, plaza, museum enter design phase

The transformation of the area between the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the rest of downtown appears to have taken a significant step forward this week.

The city has entered into professional services agreements with the Portico Group of Seattle and RDG Planning and Design of Omaha, Neb., for the design of the Maritime Park, Memorial Plaza, and Maritime Park Naval Museum or Building 50.

City economic development director Gary Sexton discussed those agreements with the City Council during a study session after the regular Council’s regular meeting on Wednesday.

“This is the real starting point for development on one of the major projects for the city,” Sexton said.

The projects will benefit not only families in the city but Navy and shipyard personnel as well, he said.

“This is a real opportunity to provide people a place to go and illustrate what the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has done for this town,” he said.

Both Portico and RDG are nationally recognized firms in their fields of expertise, he said.

“It is important because they view Bremerton as place where they want to build their marquee,” he said.

The firms expertise and ability to produce quality project renderings and cost analyses will benefit the city as it prepares to go to the state legislature to ask for funding for the three projects, he said.

“Going into committees you don’t have a lot of time and you need a clear snapshot of what you’re doing,” he said. “The legislature will actually be able to see the quality of product produced by these firms.”

With the selection of the design teams, Sexton said the trio of projects remains on schedule with significant progress to made in the first of half of the year.

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