AECOM Philippines awarded as designer of new Senate building

The Senate adopted today a resolution confirming AECOM Philippines as the winner of the Global Conceptual Design Competition for the new Philippine Senate building.

Senate Resolution 748, confirming the winner of the Global Conceptual Design Competition for the new Philippine Senate, was introduced by Senators Panfilo Lacson, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri, Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito, Francis "Chiz" Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian, Gregorio Honasan II, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva and Cynthia Villar.

"We would like to extend our warmest congratulations to AECOM. There is no doubt that your conceptual design for the Senate's permanent home best represents the honor, dignity, and legacy of this independent institution," Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Accounts tasked to pursue the relocation and oversee the eventual construction of the new and permanent home of the Senate, said.

"Finding a home that the Senate of the Philippines can call its own has long been a standing dream of this institution, and plans of relocating and constructing a permanent Senate building has been proposed and considered as far back as the year 2000 during the Senate Presidency of Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel, Jr.," the resolution said.

Through a survey conducted within the Senate community on September 19, 2017 and the adoption of Resolution 293, filed by Gatchalian, an 18,320 square meter parcel of land owned by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), located at the Navy Village in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, was chosen as the site for the construction of the new Senate building, the resolution added.

The Senate and the BCDA had launched a Global Conceptual Design Competition for the new home of the Philippine Senate on February 14, 2018.

Twenty-four foreign and 16 local architectural firms submitted their Expression of Interest (EOIs) to participate, of which the top five firms were chosen by the Selection Panel comprised of senators and BCDA officials on March 23, 2018. The top five were: AECOM, Aidea Inc., Henning Larsen Architects, Leeser Architecture, and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.

During the briefing of the top five firms held on April 14, 2018, senators and Senate officials articulated their vision for the new Senate building and the needs they would want to be addressed by the envisioned structure.

According to the resolution, technical experts from the Senate, the BCDA, the academe, and professional organizations from various fields, such as architecture, engineering, interior design, urban planning, green design, and cultural research, conducted a review and technical evaluation of the final entries based on identity, sustainability, functionality, and feasibility. The technical score of the experts comprised of 40 percent of the over-all score.

As stakeholders, Senate officials, employees and staff were also given the opportunity to vote for their design choice on May 23, 2018. Their vote, or the peoples' choice, comprises five percent of the over-all score, the resolution also said.

After careful review and evaluation by the Technical Evaluation Committee, BCDA officials, senators of the 17th Congress, and the Senate community, the conceptual design of AECOM was declared as the winning design.

"AECOM's 90,000 talented employees now serve clients in more than 150 countries around the world. Meanwhile, AECOM Philippines is a full service team of more than 200 professionals housed in new, state-of-the-art offices in Bonifacio Global City. They are a premier, fully integrated professional and technical services firm positioned to design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets around the world for public-sector clients in all of the key markets - including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, oil and gas, water, high-rise buildings and government," the resolution also said.