Swope Health, in partnership with Kansas City Kansas Community College, and Community America Credit Union is building a five-story, approximately 95,000 square foot Community Education, Health and Wellness Center in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, at 7^th Street and State Avenue.  This project represents an investment of over $55 million in downtown KCK.  Swope Health will open a Women’s and Children’s Center on the entire fifth floor in approximately 16,500 square of space.  Services will include women’s care, pediatrics, dental care, radiology, mental healthcare and supportive programming, such as prenatal group classes.  It is estimated that the new clinic will serve up to 6,000 patients annually.

Swope Health has partnered with the Kansas City Zoo to feature a zoological theme throughout the floor and promote the Zoo’s mission of education and conservation within the community.  The theming will be realized through two different approaches within the Women’s and Children’s Center. 

1. Within the children’s portion of the public waiting room and within the Children’s Clinic, the project will utilize large scale environmental graphics to be applied via vinyl wall coverings to wall surfaces prepared by others. Printing and installation of the vinyl wall graphics will be provided by others through McCown Gordon’s construction contract.

2. Within the Women’s Clinic and at the Dental Exam Rooms within the Children’s Clinic, framed art photography and fine art will be used to reinforce the zoological theme of the floor.

It is intended to utilize graphic artwork and art photography in a fun and playful, but sophisticated way within the Children’s Clinic to create an animal themed environment and reinforce the partnership with the Kansas City Zoo.  The graphic artwork should not be of a “childish” or “cartooned” style, but should have a fun and sophisticated feel, celebrating interesting and engaging aspects of the animal kingdom in alignment with the Kansas City Zoo’s mission of education and conservation.  The large mural in the children’s waiting room is intended to represent a map of the Kansas City Zoo and provide a “seek-and-find” opportunity for children, both within the mural itself and to also reference other animals represented throughout the rest of the clinic.

It is intended for Women’s Clinic to utilize framed art work to reinforce the zoological theme in a refined and mature way that will differentiate the Women’s Clinic from the Children’s Clinic.  These two areas of the Center should have a different character and feel.

Desired Services:  Graphic Design & Art Curation – we seek an up-and-coming graphic designer and art curator to use inspiration from the Zoo to create original graphics including a primary wall mural in the main lobby, framed art, and wall murals and individual graphics for hallways and exam rooms.  The graphic designer and art curator will work closely with Swope Health, the architecture firm, PGAV, and the construction manager, McCownGordon. 

 

Partners providing qualifications in response to this RFQ may pursue one or both categories of work including graphic design and/or art curation.  Submissions must clearly identify the services that are being proposed.

Deliverables – Environmental Graphics:  original artwork in a digital format that is acceptable to the Owner, of the resolution required to print at the intended scales.  Artwork will be printed and installed by others.

Deliverables – Art Curation:  selected partner will curate art photography and animal themed art work for review and final selection by the Owner.  The selected art curator will arrange for and facilitate purchase of the artwork by the Owner and will have the artwork framed (framing and mats to be reviewed and approved by the Owner), and will also provide for final installation in the Women’s and Children’s Center.

About Swope Health:  Swope Health is the Kansas City region’s largest community health center, serving over 54,000 patients annually in Missouri and Kansas.  With a mission to offer our patients care that is accessible, comprehensive and highest quality, we offer primary care, women’s care, dental, mental health, pharmacy, lab, radiology and other services.  Please visit SwopeHealth.org for more information.

Project requirements:

• Original graphics using the Kansas City Zoo and the animal kingdom as inspiration (animals of all species, nature scenes, Zoo attractions, etc.)
• Providing multiple graphics for different areas of the clinic
• A “seek and find” or “Where’s Waldo?” type of design for the main lobby
• Hallway graphics
• Creative graphics in the Children’s Clinic, such as a height or weight chart using animals.
• Art work that would also be suitable for framing
• Works that are cohesive and complementary, to create an environment that is comfortable and inviting – prefer to avoid looks that would be heavily influenced by cartoons, anime or graffiti (as an example in the Children’s Dentistry Exam Rooms highlighting animals with unique or interesting teeth, or photography that highlights animal teeth in a fun or interesting way)
• An artist’s statement to display in clinic
• Attending the RFQ Virtual Workshop/Pre-proposal Meeting, or watching the recording, which will include detailed information
• Attend a virtual interview if selected as a top candidate

Payment information:  Swope Health will pay professional graphic design rates, we will agree upon payment and terms before the project starts.

Timeline:

Week of 2/10/2025 – RFQ Issued

2/25/2025, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. CST – RFQ Virtual Info Session/Pre-proposal Meeting

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Meeting ID: 295 504 880 182

Passcode: 7sQ2Nv3H

2/27/2025 – Questions Due (email to info@swopehealth.org)

3/4/2025 – Swope Health responses to questions published

3/14/2025 – RFQ Responses Due

Week of 3/24/2025 – Internal review process

Week of 3/31/2025 – Virtual interviews of top candidates

By 4/11/2025 –Notice to Proceed to finalist(s)

By 9/1/2025 By 7/1/2025 – All graphics completed and provided digitally to Swope Health

By 10/1/2025  By 8/1/2025 – Final selection and purchase of artwork by owner

Swope Health reserves the right to withdraw the RFQ or modify the approach.

Questions:

Please email your questions related to this RFQ to info@swopehealth.org

Process to Respond to the RFQ:

Email your responses to the questions below to info@swopehealth.org, include everything in a single email, including attachments and links.  Please use the subject line, “RFQ Submission – Your Name.”  We will send you a confirmation of complete application.

Name:

Mailing Address:

Email:

Phone:

Website:

Are you independent or part of a firm? 

If Firm, firm name and website:

Personal statement (please describe yourself): 

Hourly billing rate:

Estimated number of hours to complete project:

Your approach to this project (500-word max):

Attachments:

• Résumé  or CV
• At least three examples of your work to demonstrate project fit (in PDF)

Click to Download Full RFQ

Examples:

These renderings are concepts created by the architecture firm, to show some of the areas in the Center that will feature Zoo graphics.

The main lobby will include a train cutout, representing the Kansas City Zoo Railroad.  We’d like the Kansas City Zoo logo to also appear on this wall.

The lobby will be roughly divided by furniture to create distinct spaces for children and adults.  This rendering shows the train wall from a different perspective.

This image is not intended for literal interpretation, but acknowledges the incorporation of animal footprints can be an educational opportunity.

This image does not represent stylistic preference.  But rather the idea of a larger animal focused landscape mural in the corridor of the Children’s Clinic at pediatric exam rooms.

These renderings show how we’d like to have graphics in the hallways.  We like the animal height chart idea as shown for the pediatric clinic.

This rendering shows the stylistic preference and an idea for highlighting teeth in the animal kingdom at the Children’s Dental Exam Rooms.