During the first half of this year Congress has hosted a number of hearings, both on Capitol Hill and in various cities across the United States, that provide a clear view of its objectives regarding federal real estate. All of…
Category: Space Utilization
Downsizing: It’s Going to Happen and Here’s Why
The trend in space utilization is towards greater efficiency, mobile work and collaborative workspaces. As we have discussed many times on this blog (including here and here), the federal government has embarked on efforts across its…
Total Workplace Initiative Cuts Costs & Energy Use
Federal offices remain closed or short-staffed for the shutdown, but eventually copiers will hum and coffee will perk again. While imagining that future, it’s also possible to wonder how the federal workplace will look in the…
Gensler Survey Shows Shrinking Office Spaces Need Balance
Efforts to shrink federal and private sector real estate footprints are changing the workplace. Sharing non-dedicated spaces and adopting technologies that allow work anywhere, any time have been expected to improve employee productivity even as square…
Downsizing the Federal Real Estate Footprint
It has been almost two weeks since the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee convened its May 22nd hearing entitled “Saving Taxpayer Dollars: Freezing the Federal Real…
Freezing the Federal Footprint
As it noted in a White House blog posting by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Controller Danny Werfel Thursday, the Obama Administration has made disposing of unneeded properties and making more efficient use of the…
2012: Government Real Estate Year In Review
If you think the world of government real estate is a staid and boring place, think again. There is a lot going on: big transactions, important policy and outright scandal. 2012 was no exception. We published…
GAO Urges More Collocation, Strategic Partnerships
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently recommended that federal property-owning agencies work together and with other agencies to coordinate their space needs, in order to identify ways in which they can share space (collocate), which…
OMB Freezes Inventory Growth
On Friday, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director, Jeffrey Zients, issued a memorandum effectively freezing the federal inventory of leased space. The memorandum entitled “Promoting Efficient Spending to Support Agency Operations” addressed a wide…
PTO Proves Teleworking Works
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) employees participating in the agency’s Patent Hoteling Program (PHP)—the agency’s largest telework program—process more patent applications per year than their in-office counterparts and save the agency millions of dollars each…