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    The firm, KUD International, will coordinate the project’s design, engineering and construction and will make recommendations to the project’s board and staff, Nancy Quellhorst, the project’s director of operations, said Wednesday.

    Project officials, who are seeking $90 million to supplement almost $90 million already given to the project, expect KUD’s expertise to provide the detail private backers have wanted, she said.

    ‘‘They provide a very high level of expertise in a lot of crucial areas,’’ Quellhorst said. ‘‘This will be very advantageous to us.’’

    The arrangement also should give project officials a guarantee that the project opens on time and on budget in early 2009, Quellhorst said.

    KUD was chosen because of its experience in private-public partnerships of similar scale and building exhibits that mimic environmental habitats, Quellhorst said.

    The firm will help develop a 20-story rain forest near Interstate 80 in Coralville, in a brownfield area called the Iowa River Landing District. Billed as a tourist attraction and learning center, the rain forest is to include a 1 million-gallon aquarium and is expected to draw 1.1 million to 1.5 million visitors a year.

    KUD, a subsidiary of Kajima Corp., is involved in the $118 million Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., which features 19 habitats, and Biota!, a $150 million aquarium in London that features a flooded forest display among the 70 exhibits. The firm also helped with construction of the San Francisco Giants’ SBC Park and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field.

    KUD project executive John Best said it was premature to comment about the project because contract talks haven’t been finished. He called it a ‘‘tremendous urban redevelopment project.’’

    ‘‘We hope the talks wrap up soon so we can get on board and get started,’’ he said.

    Quellhorst declined to release financial details but said KUD would require the project to have all its financing in hand before construction starts.

    The effort to raise additional money is expected to be finished within the next 18 months, Quellhorst said.

    Quellhorst said The Environmental Project is delaying a request for $20 million in Vision Iowa funding until the project secures additional private support. Officials previously had hoped to file that request by a July 1 deadline.

    ‘‘Timing is crucial for us,’’ Quellhorst said of that joint request between The Environmental Project and Coralville. ‘‘We have to be at a point where we can offer a package they can’t refuse.’’