When the new Department of the Interior (DOI) headquarters opened in 1936, employees enjoyed the latest in building amenities and technologies: a gymnasium, movable steel office partitions, a soda fountain, and the first air conditioning system…
Category: Agencies
Wanted: New Uses for Old Courthouses
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 has sparked a faint glow of optimism that agencies will plan more strategically for their space needs in the coming years. Last spring, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report estimated…
GSA’s Green Proving Ground
If government agencies could make New Year’s resolutions, improving energy and water efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars would be good ones. And some of the support needed to keep up their resolve would come from a…
Power Struggle in Hearing over FTC Space Needs
Two Art Deco sculptures adorn the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) headquarters at Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues, depicting muscular men wrestling rebellious stallions and symbolizing government’s role in controlling trade. But a contentious hearing on December 3rd…
GSA Recommends LEED and Green Globes
The wait is over. For 17 months, the GSA has been studying third-party green building certification systems, as required every five years by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). In the first such…
FBI Field Office Sales Trend
It’s clear that cap rates for long-term, GSA-leased properties have fallen steadily since the end of the 2008 recession. Yet, we’ve been challenged to demonstrate that in a meaningful way. The problem is that merely reporting…
Spotlight: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has been on the hot seat lately, in congressional hearings over the troubled Healthcare.gov website. But overseeing much of the Affordable Care Act implementation is…
A Look at DOE’s Cool New Energy Systems Integration Facility
Photovoltaic panels on high performance buildings can significantly cut energy costs and carbon emissions. But distributed, intermittent renewable energy sources are a challenge to integrate with the aging U.S. electrical grid. The vital goal of a…
GAO Report Urges Greater Focus on Ownership
In September, the GAO issued the latest in a long series of reports concluding that GSA’s leasing strategy is flawed. This report, entitled “Greater Transparency and Strategic Focus Needed for High-Value Leases”, studied the 218 largest leases in…
Federal Courts Downsizing
Even as construction began on a long-awaited, 600,000 SF courthouse in Los Angeles this fall, efforts to downsize or close federal court facilities picked up in pace. Last week, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts…