JELA_Wayside_SOW_Chalmette_Battlefield_Unit_0001.docx

African American Experience at Chalmette Battlefield Unit Wayside Scope of Work Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve Background Through a Cooperative Education System Unit (CESU) agreement with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (JELA) is creating a Special History Study (SHS) for its Chalmette Battlefield Unit. The study will be comprehensive and will survey and supplement existing research, focusing on the experiences of and resources associated with 19th century African Americans during the antebellum decades, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras that have been neglected in earlier studies. The study will place park resources within the larger contexts of people, organizations, and events in St Bernard Parish.

JELA wants to create outdoor exhibits to interpret the study’s significant findings to visitors and staff. The exhibits will consist of traditional interpretive waysides as well as an on-site audio component.

Project Scope The project shall be the design and fabrication of at least two new wayside exhibits for Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as creation of audio feature based on existing oral history content. The project includes coordination with the Contracting Officer (CO), Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), and park staff.

The Contractor shall provide all services including labor, materials, facilities, and travel necessary to design and fabricate interpretive wayside exhibits for JELA in accordance with the specifications as detailed in this contract and its attachments. Work shall include the design and fabrication of all exhibit structures, graphic layouts, interactive elements, artwork, and sculpted models.

Comprehensive research will be conducted by the SHS project team. The Contractor will use provided research materials in creating interpretive panel content.

Government Furnished Materials JELA shall furnish, as appropriate, required data and access to project information necessary to perform the production of work as required.

· The government will share SHS project team schedule and SHS drafts.

· The government will furnish wayside design templates as editable InDesign files.

· The government will furnish oral history transcripts.

No government furnished equipment (GFE) will be provided.

Communication The Contractor’s Project Manager (PM) shall be the primary point of contact between the Contractor and COR. The Contractor’s PM shall have full authority to act for the Contractor on all matters relating to this contract.

Project will be completed remotely, with Contractor and National Park Service (NPS) staff remaining in contact via email, telephone correspondence, and virtual meeting platform (e.g., Zoom or MS Teams). File sharing will occur via MS Teams.

At least one in-person site visit is expected. Travel to site may be in conjunction with SHS project team.

The Contractor shall document all issues discussed and decisions made relative to the project. The Contractor shall prepare and distribute to the COR a trip report or meeting minutes of all telephone conversations, site visits, in-person meetings, or other discussions related to the project.

Schedule The period of performance begins in 2023 and will extend through 2026.

The Contractor shall contact the COR within 10 days after receipt of an awarded contract to schedule project kick-off.

The Contractor and SHS project team will kick-off project together. The Contractor’s subsequent work will tier off the SHS project team schedule and key milestones. The SHS period of performance is also 2023-2026.

Within two weeks of receiving the SHS project team schedule, the Contractor will present a proposed project timeline, delivery schedule with key milestones and associated payment schedule.

Deliverables Over the period of performance, Contractor shall submit the following packages to the COR:

1. Kick-off/Post-award meeting notes and draft schedule

2. Wayside Exhibit Proposal with illustrated thumbnails

3. Draft Wayside Exhibit designs, with draft text and black/white drawings Oral history audio proposal

4. Draft Wayside Exhibit designs with art at 50% completion and refined draft text

5. Final Wayside Exhibit designs with full color art, final text Draft audio description script Oral history audio recordings Shop drawings

6. Production ready proofs mailed to COR and park

7. Final Products, defined below In addition to design PDFs, draft text should be sent as MS Word or other editable document file type.

Final Products

1. Two wayside panels, delivered to location

2. Two bases with hardware and assembly instructions, delivered to location

3. Audio device with pre-programmed content, delivered to location

4. Close-out package, delivered digitally

· Final editable InDesign files with linked graphics and fonts

· As-printed wayside exhibit production files

· Raw scans and layered graphic source files

· Accessible PDF for each exhibit. At a minimum, the PDF shall pass the Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Full Check found under the "Tools" section of Adobe Acrobat.

· List of all use rights secured by Contractor

· Accessible MS Word documents of final English text

· Final audio description script

· List of all off the shelf items indicating where it was purchased and how much Prior to delivery of wayside bases and hardware, the Contractor shall contact the COR to advise of exact dates and arrangements made for delivery.

Services The Contractor shall provide all technical, professional, non-personal services, including all labor, materials, equipment, supplies, facilities, travel, management, and supervision necessary to provide JELA with production ready files for outdoor interpretive wayside exhibits.

Planning and Design Create production ready design files for two original 36” x 24” low profile exhibits.

Create interpretive site-specific text. Content experts and reference material shall be provided.

Graphics Purchase and/or create up to 10 unidentified images.

Responsible for the cost of all reproductions and for securing copyright permission, where applicable. Wherever possible, images that are in the public domain should be chosen. Create and maintain a Graphic Source List of all graphic elements and associated use rights.

Interactives Furnish one solar or hand powered outdoor audio device. Box must be able to withstand extreme weather conditions. Must be able to play at least 4 reprogrammable messages.

Vendor will provide edited oral history audio files pre-programmed on digital media storage platform (e.g., memory card) compatible with solar device.

Audio Description Create audio description script for all designed wayside exhibit elements.

Fabrication Fabricate two 36” x 24” aluminum panels. All panels shall have a 10-year warrantee against fading and delaminating.

Fabricate two 36” x 24” low profile aluminum bases for direct embed mounting, painted NPS brown.

Options Certain options may make a proposal more favorable. While the Government is interested in certain options, the Government may, or may not, choose to acquire such options, regardless of final contractor selection. The following project options should be addressed in the proposal if available:

· 3D tactile element(s) and means to display on site

· 3D digital object/model(s) for web/app use 3D Tactiles A tactile may be affixed to the wayside or require separate mounting. Tactile material must be suitable for outdoor use. Waysides placement should favor locations for a front approach for a person using a wheelchair and should require a front approach whenever a tactile element is present.

3D Digital Object Creation The Contractor will develop Augmented Reality (AR) models for the National Park Service. The following specifications apply to these models:

1. The Contractor shall provide 3D models for use in both iOS and Android versions of the application. All 3D models shall be compatible with the latest versions of ARKit (for iOS) and ARCore (for Android) at the time of submission.

2. The 3D models shall be provided in Universal Scene Description (USDZ) format for iOS and in GL Transmission Format (glTF) for Android. All models must be optimized for mobile platforms to ensure efficient performance and minimal power consumption.

3. Each 3D model should include related textures, materials, and animation data (if applicable) embedded within the file or in a supporting .zip file.

4. All 3D models should be optimized for a physically-based rendering (PBR) workflow. This requires textures for base color (albedo), metallic, roughness, and normal maps. Additional maps (like Ambient Occlusion or Emissive) may be required based on the model's specific requirements.

5. The 3D models shall maintain a balance between visual fidelity and performance efficiency, ensuring a smooth user experience on a broad range of devices, due to the nature of slow connections and download times often experienced by visitors in parks. Contractors shall avoid unnecessary polygon complexity and maintain a polygon count suitable for real-time rendering on mobile devices.

6. The Contractor will also provide a thumbnail image (JPEG or PNG format, minimum size of 512 x 512 pixels) for each 3D model.

7. Contractor shall ensure that all 3D models and associated assets comply with all applicable copyright laws and regulations, and do not infringe on any third-party rights.

The Contractor agrees to adhere to these specifications and any additional guidelines provided by the National Park Service throughout the project lifecycle. Any deviations from these requirements must be approved in writing by the National Park Service prior to implementation.

Project Management Park Point of Contact Meredith Hardy Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve Meredith_Hardy@nps.gov

COR

Stephanie Metzler Southeast Regional Office stephanie_metzler@nps.gov NPS Wayside Standards and Attachments The Contractor will produce products that align to NPS standards and guidance outlined on NPS webpages and included as attachments.

Waysides - Harpers Ferry Center (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) Wayside Exhibits: A Guide to Developing Outdoor Interpretive Exhibits (Wayside Guide) (nps.gov) Accessibility - Harpers Ferry Center (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) HFC Editorial Style Guide - Harpers Ferry Center (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) Wayside Map Standards (nps.gov) Attachments

· Plan and Design Specifications

· Typographic Standards

· Audio Description

· Graphic Panel Specifications

· Base Production Specifications

· Intellectual Property Guidance

· Site photos Accessibility Wayside exhibits planned, designed, and fabricated for the National Park Service (NPS) shall follow the latest published version of Programmatic Accessibility Guidelines. These guidelines are a combination of best practices, NPS and Department of the Interior directives, and federal laws. Federal laws include the Architectural Barriers Act, Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended, and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

Accessibility requirements for visitors with specific disabilities shall be addressed within the designed exhibits. If design decisions pose challenges to accessibility (such as inaccessible location of outdoor exhibit), additional attention shall be paid to a full description of the accessibility solutions.

See HFC Accessibility webpage for Programmatic Accessibility Guidelines.

Sub-contractors Sub-contractors may be required to complete this work. Contractor should include a list of sub-contractors and the work they will perform in the proposal.

Evaluation Criteria The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. Technical Merit and Past Performance, when combined, are more important than Price. Award will be offered to the vendor offering the best value to the government.

· Portfolio/Technical Merit Submit portfolio samples showing final production and conceptual designs (storyboards, thumbnails, or similar). Portfolios will be evaluated on creativity, quality, and relevance to the project.

· Experience/Past Performance

· Demonstrate proof of experience (that of company as well as the experience of key members of the assigned design team)

· Proven expertise and qualifications necessary to perform services described in the SOW and provide high quality, ready to install outdoor exhibits.

· List three references with current contact information.

· The Government may, at its discretion, base past performance on past knowledge and previous experience with the Contractor, customer survey, or other reasonable goals.

· Price Price must be determined fair, reasonable, affordable, and balanced when evaluated in accordance with FAR 13. For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the Government that a prudent person would pay in the conduct of competitive business. Price can also be determined reasonable by comparison with competitive offerors.