[Fully linked PDF version available here: http://inthefold.autodesk.com/files/rfp.pdf]

MARKET STREET PROTOTYPING FESTIVAL
OPEN CALL
Autodesk Keystone Project

Call Closes: September 2, 2014
Shortlist Interviews: September 17-19, 2014
Proposal Selection: October 1, 2014

CALL SUMMARY:
The San Francisco Planning Department has partnered with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) to produce the Market Street Prototyping Festival: an innovative, hands-on, publicly sourced approach to creating the next chapter of San Francisco’s public life.

The Market Street Prototyping Festival builds upon a five-year, multi-agency effort for a Better Market Street to re-establish San Francisco’s civic spine as a place to stop and spend time, meet friends, people watch, or just stroll and experience the scenery. As a formal piece of the planning process, the Prototyping Festival will commission and exhibit up to 50 design projects that aim to improve lives by improving public spaces. Each of the selected prototype projects will be installed on Market Street for the full duration of the three-day festival, which will take place in April 9-11, 2015. Matched with one of five Festival Districts on Market, selected teams will work directly with community members to shape the direction of their designs. The call for applications for those 50 projects is currently open and will close on September 2nd, 2014. More information on that process can be found on the Market Street Prototyping Festival website.

Market Street will be broken out into 5 districts along the corridor: Civic Center, Central Market, Retail, Financial, Embarcadero. Each district, or "Block," will be represented by a Block Captain. Each Captain will mentor 10 selected prototyping teams and will be responsible for developing their own Keystone Project that will serve as the primary focal point for each district. As the Block Captain for the Embarcadero district, Autodesk is seeking proposals from engineers, industrial designers, architects, artists, and interactive designers for a large-scale Keystone Project to serve as a physical, visual and social anchor for the Embarcadero section of the festival.

While there is no official theme for the festival itself, the Autodesk Keystone Project should relate to the ethos “Inspire, Design, Create.” Additionally, it should connect to the character of the Pier 9 Workshop where artists, designers and fabricators are empowered to test the limits of existing technology, both digital and mechanical. Special consideration may be given to projects that incorporate the following themes related to place-making and the unique social and spatial conditions of the Embarcadero district:

• site specificity: social, cultural, geographic, and civic histories
• connecting digital and physical realms
• daring experimentation/playful prototyping
• edge condition: city + waterfront
• wayfinding and transportation networks

LOCATION:
Over the course of the festival, the city anticipates foot traffic of over 300,000 visitors. The Keystone Project may be installed anywhere within the festival’s Embarcadero district, which starts at the intersection of Market and Spear Street, extending to the traffic island at Embarcadero and Market, possibly including Jimmy Herman Plaza. See the map on the Market Street Prototyping Festival website for more details and note that Autodesk's main San Francisco office is located at 1 Market.

LOGISTICS, EXPECTATIONS, AND SUPPORT:
The selected project and team will be fully supported by the Pier 9 Workshop! We look forward to having you join our creative community of Artists in Residence, other Creative Projects Teams, and the folks who make Instructables.com go. We provide ample opportunities to collaborate with other designers and makers, to receive training on any of the machines in our workshop, gain software support for all Autodesk products (including free software licenses), and call upon the expertise of our fantastic Shop Staff. We can supply a modest office workspace and 24-hour access to the workshop. All basic workshop supplies will be covered, including hardware, sheet goods, finishes, and prototyping materials. Additional funding will be provided at an amount to be determined. We expect to support an innovative and inspiring project that reflects the use of our world-class facilities, at a scale similar to the precedents listed. For more information on the amenities available at Pier 9, see the Pier 9 Overview and Machine Catalog Instructables.

Your project will also receive support from Autodesk’s public relations team, marketing team, video and photo documentation team, software specialists, and workshop fabrication specialists. There will be an expectation that you will work collaboratively with all of these groups to share the progress and product of your work.

Finally, we have an Advisory Committee representing expertise in areas of landscape architecture, sustainability, and digital fabrication that can be called upon for consultation and critical feedback at particular points in the project timeline.
The selected artist or team will be expected to formally share their progress throughout the development and fabrication process with the creative community at Pier 9 and beyond. This includes:

• posting Instructables related to the making of the project
• 2 presentations to the Advisory Committee for feedback
• 1 lunchtime presentation to the full Pier 9 community, near project completion

TIMELINE:
July 11, 2014 —RFP Release
July 22, 2014 —12pm lunchtime RFP Info Session at Pier 9
September 2, 2014 —Proposals Due
September 17-19, 2014 — Semifinalist interviews
October 1, 2014 —Keystone project announced
October - December, 2014 — periodic consultations with members of Advisory Board
Early December, 2014 — Presentation and critique with the Advisory Board
Early February, 2015 — Follow-up presentation and critique with the Advisory Board
2 weeks before festival —Dress rehearsal (deadline for full assembly and functionality)
April 9-11, 2015 —Installation and three-day festival presentation

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
- 1 page statement regarding the concept, siting, and fabrication strategy for your proposal
- Up to 5 photos/videos of mock-ups or prior work
- CV including exhibition history (if applicable)
- Proposed budget outline (Please include direct costs, materials, artist fees, contractors, and
any additional project contributors or contractors)
- Draft project calendar including proposed dates for prototyping workflow, workshop
production time, completion time(s), and out-of-town dates (if applicable)
- List of anticipated machines and materials needed

ABOUT PIER 9:
Autodesk’s Pier 9 workshop is a world-class fabrication facility on the San Francisco Bay. The Artist in Residence (AiR) program gives artists, designers and Instructables authors a chance to work with us in our lab and workshops to explore, create, and document innovative projects with our tools and resources and share them with the DIY community. AiRs are invited to come for a period of several weeks to several months, during which they will work on projects that are
shared across the Autodesk Studio Communities. The primary goals of the residency program are to produce top-level inspirational content and to connect innovative and creative individuals with our unique set of tools and resources.

Questions and inquiries are encouraged. We look forward to learning more about your work. Please submit applications with all materials compiled in a .zip file titled with your project name to: P9PublicPrograms@Autodesk.com.