North Iowa Reporter

At its April 3 meeting, the Clear Lake City Council was presented with a proposal from Atura Architecture, a local firm, for services to design the new enhanced Music Enrichment Center in the Surf District.

The building will sit on the corner of North Shore Drive and Seventh Avenue North. The City has already had some concept drawings made so that they could apply for grants through Destination Iowa.

The concept was modeled after the original Art Deco structure of the ballroom that was built on the lake in the early 1930’s. Atura is actually the same firm that was involved in designing the Surf Ballroom and Fox House in the district 90 years ago.

"One of the things we had to be mindful of when we were soliciting proposals for this is that if you recall a while back, we adopted a procurement policy that has a number of provisions related to how we go about contracting for services like architectural and engineering and later bidding related to construction services," City manager Scott Flory said in the meeting. "So we had to develop the proposal in response to those requirements that were subjected to under the procurement policy that the Council adopted. And so there's a number of federal acts and pieces of legislation that we have to ensure a compliance with on this, and Atura has a good strong background in that. We also are interested in the Construction Manager at Risk bidding alternative. You know, it's new this year in the state of Iowa, an alternative to the traditional low-bid method of bidding these kinds of vertical projects. So Atura had some real strong background with that."

The full-circle moment also saw a presentation from Austin Phel, a representative from Atura. The founder of the firm was the original designer of the Surf District, and the organization is proud of its 100-year heritage and history in the community. Phel highlighted that they would be coordinating with the City and all other contractors to make sure that the streetscape is maintained in pristine condition and aesthetics. He also shared that they would be doing a documentation process that helps tell the story of the Surf District from its very beginning to this rebirth project.

Atura's architectural fee will be 7% of the construction costs. They have worked successfully with the City in the past and are familiar with the Construction Manager at Risk process the City wants to pursue. The council was pleased to see the design and heritage that will be going on in the project. They also agreed with Atura's focus on outreach and education, engaging with the community in the detailed and confusing process of redeveloping the historic district. The council unanimously voted to award the contract to Atura.