The Long Wharf Theatre, a local performance place, has issued a Request for Qualifications from architectural firms to design its new building at the site of the former Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Web site Design New Haven reported this week. The theater is requesting submissions by Jan. 23, and Design New Haven reported that New Haven-based architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli was the front-runner for designing the complex. Former Yale School of Architecture Dean Cesar Pelli’s company was a finalist for developer of the entire 4.5-acre plot, but City Hall ultimately chose another Yale related firm: Northland Investment Corp., which will work with School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern ARC ’65. The theater building and Northland’s project — a multi-tiered mixed-retail site featuring 80,000 gross square feet of office space and an elliptical residential tower — are separate designs that will be constructed on the Coliseum site. Both are set to be open by 2012.