Cody Mayer

MARQUETTE — On March 25, the Marquette City Commission awarded the contract for the design and construction oversight of the new Presque Isle Bandshell to AWH Architects, LLC of Minneapolis which had submitted a bid of $99,760.

Four bids had been received and were found to be substantially complete. The other bids were submitted by Sanders and Czapski Associates of Marquette for $64,500, Studio RAD, LLC of Marquette for $96,500, and Driven Design of Battle Creek for $85,000.

Deputy City Clerk Rachel Quayle explained that city staff did not award the bid based on cost alone. Staff also scored the proposals based on relative experience of personnel, experience in designing outdoor performance venues, project management experience, references and office location. Staff members were especially impressed with AWH’s work on previous performance venues and attention to lighting and acoustic design.

Expenses for the design services and construction oversight is included in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget and offset by $100,000 from the Hirvonen Foundation for professional design services for the facility. In 2023, the Marquette commissioners approved naming the new Presque Isle Bandshell the Peg Hirvonen Bandshell. The bandshell was built in the 1930s and has been decommissioned after exceeding its useful life, Quayle said.

In the public comments period, Dan LeBar, a member of the Presque Isle Park Advisory Committee said he hopes as the board engages with the design firm they will keep in mind the size and character of the former bandshell. “We don’t want some huge, gaudy obnoxious thing,” he said.

Here are details that are to be considered in the design of the bandshell, according to Director of Community Services Jon Swenson: The new bandshell will be located in the same area as before and is expected to have an approximately 30% larger footprint. The previous bandshell area has bench seating for about 200 people.

“We expect the new facility to seat as many with designated seating, (plus) room for an overflow of many times that number. Parking at that area would be a limiting factor as that will not change,” said Swenson.

The plans must be approved by the city commission before construction.

During commission comments, Commissioner Cody Mayer said he would like to see the cultural heritage of the island and the indigenous people be honored. “The last Ojibwa chief and a founding father of Marquette is buried on the island,” Mayer said.

“I’m excited to see what they come up with. It looks like they’ve come up with some pretty awesome stuff in the past (based on their portfolio),” Commissioner Jermey Ottawa said.

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve engaging AWH to design and oversee construction of the new Presque Isle bandshell, and to authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the contract.

Vickie Fee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 542. Her email address is vfee@miningjournal.net.