Kornbread, I think you misread, they were the lowest.
According to the
attachment on the agenda, the numbers looked like this:
Bartlett Cocke/RVK/DHR - $57,124,268
Skansa USA/Perkins/Will - $56,428,903
Turner Cons/Kell Munoz - $55,429,986
Zachry / Jacobs - $54,235,615
Hensel Phelps / Fentress - $47,175,000
The reason they were chosen was because they were $7 million lower than the next (second-lowest) bidder. Cheapest (almost) always wins.
They did some dorms on Fort Sam..... boring and I expect this building to be the same. The city will expect them to use 5 or so building materials (I'm sure
stucco, stone, brick, metal or something in an attempt to make it "interesting" but instead they are creating monotony by having every building contain the same materials. I'm more concerned about that than I am about design; I'd prefer it to have better land use and build it to scale, and would like for them to surprise everyone on the exterior materials used.
Good thing is that we are trading in an old building and parking lot for a new building and a parking garage. Pretty good trade off as long as we can continue to make the lots disappear.
When you expect too much and ask to much in terms of design, you end up with crap like the Central Library; awesome building architecturally (as a model or sketch) but to humans it is 3 walls of nothing and an entrance that is awkward and hard to find.