Category: US GSA

Source: United States General Services Administration

December 9, 2022

GSA Contact: william.powell@gsa.gov

Courts Contact: Peter_Welsh@pamd.uscourts.gov

PHILADELPHIA – Today, the U.S. General Services Administration and the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania cut the ribbon on the new Sylvia H. Rambo U.S. Courthouse in midtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The new courthouse features eight courtrooms and 11 chambers and is anticipated to be substantially complete in winter 2023.

“The building and its surrounding landscape will be a civic icon and public space that serves as a catalyst for further revitalization of the area while promoting stronger visual and physical links to the Capitol Complex and the rest of Harrisburg,” said Judge Rambo. “As we gather here today, we commemorate the dedication of this building as a United States Courthouse to the ever-vital role that the federal judiciary plays in our democracy.”

Judge Rambo is one of a few living women to have a courthouse named after her. The Sylvia H. Rambo U.S. Courthouse is only the third, following the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona (2000), and the Diana E. Murphy U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2019).

“We are thrilled to be at the finish line for this beautiful building,” said GSA’s PBS Commissioner Nina Albert. “The Sylvia H. Rambo U.S. Courthouse will meet the needs of people who work in and visit this building, which includes sustainable features, impressive design and reflects a strong partnership among GSA, the Courts, and the City of Harrisburg to bring a modern courthouse to the city.”

“Our nation’s great experiment in democracy is a legacy that belongs to every single American,” said Governor Tom Wolf. “The judicial branch upholds the laws of our nation. It upholds the rights Americans hold dear. I am glad to be here to mark the completion of this incredible facility, which will serve Pennsylvanians and our nation’s courts as we grow into the future. This new courthouse will be a center of justice and democracy, and the people who walk its halls every day will continue the work of upholding the laws of this nation and the rights of its residents. Thank you to everyone who commits themselves to this important work here in Pennsylvania.”

“Judge Sylvia Rambo advocated tirelessly for the new federal courthouse’s planning, construction, and funding. Her trailblazing career inspired future generations of woman lawyers in Pennsylvania and beyond, and I can think of no better tribute than naming the building in her honor,” said U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). “I was proud to work closely with Judge Rambo and a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania lawmakers to secure federal funding to complete this state-of-the-art courthouse for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.”

The building includes two GSA Art in Architecture commissions. Monique van Genderen’s 250-foot mural, “I Thought of You…the People’s Painting,” is front and center in the lobby, visible from the street and rolling through the space reminiscent of the nearby Susquehanna River. Van Genderen said her work was “to transport the viewer to a space apart from our everyday reality, a space that speaks to our individuality and commonality at the same time.”

The mural was completed in October 2022. When touring the facility at the time, GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan met Judge Rambo and interviewed van Genderen.

The second commission, Claire Sherman’s eight painting series “Trees and Vines,” will be installed on floors 3-10. The compositions of the paintings on the lower floors are denser with foliage, while the paintings on the upper floors reveal progressively larger areas of open sky. Installation is estimated for spring 2023.

The courthouse occupies four acres at 6th and Reily streets. Tenants of this new courthouse will be the U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, Middle District of Pennsylvania, along with U.S. Attorneys, Federal Public Defender, GSA, Dept. of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, and U.S. Trustees.

Ennead Architects designed the courthouse, Mascaro Construction is the general contractor for the building, and Hill International provided construction management services.

###

About GSA: We provide centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. Our mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @US_GSAR3.

Source: United States General Services Administration

December 7, 2022

GSA continues to accelerate efforts to electrify federal buildings to meet President Biden’s net-zero goal

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Robin Carnahan issued the following statement regarding the Biden-Harris Administration’s new electrification standard for the country’s 300,000 existing federal buildings. The new Federal Building Performance Standard requires each agency to electrify 30 percent of their existing buildings by square footage through energy efficient, cost-effective upgrades to equipment and appliances.

“The new standard advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s leadership in making the federal government a model for decarbonization and clean energy innovation,” said GSA Administrator Carnahan. “GSA is excited to help lead the way toward a net-zero federal footprint that will save money for taxpayers, reduce harmful emissions, and help spur demand for next-generation clean energy technologies.”

The Inflation Reduction Act boosts GSA’s efforts to decarbonize federal buildings. Administrator Carnahan recently committed to not use any funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to install new fossil fuel-based equipment. Currently, more than 20% of the buildings in GSA’s portfolio use only electricity, rather than running on on-site fossil fuel-based equipment.

Examples of all-electric buildings in the GSA portfolio that will help to achieve the Administration’s goal of a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045, including a 50% emissions reduction by 2032, include the Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago and the new U.S. Courthouse in Greenville, South Carolina, which was completed in July 2021. The new U.S. Courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa, is being constructed as an all-electric building, with occupancy scheduled for early 2023.

In 2023, GSA also will complete the modernization of the Denver Federal Center Building 48, an existing vacant warehouse that will be converted into an efficient, all-electric 150,000-square foot office space for the Department of the Interior. Modernizing this existing building will minimize embodied carbon emissions, and it will be designed and operated to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

###

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA

Source: United States General Services Administration

December 7, 2022

Paving project to better support port operations, increase sustainability

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced its selection of OCS Construction Services, a small disadvantaged business and certified 8(a) contractor based in Riverside, California, to provide design-build services for a low-embodied carbon concrete project at the Otay Mesa Land Port of Entry (LPOE) in California. The approximately $1.8 million contract was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). This is the first LPOE project to use GSA’s new low-embodied-carbon concrete standard issued earlier this year.

The Otay Mesa LPOE is the busiest commercial port in California and serves as an alternative to the San Ysidro LPOE for travelers. The asphalt covering the port queueing area suffers from cracks, potholes and erosion from the thousands of vehicles that cross each day. The concrete paving project would address those deficiencies and use GSA’s new low-embodied carbon concrete standard. In contrast to the previous asphalt paving at the port, the low-embodied carbon concrete is comparatively more resilient to damage and erosion, and requires less frequent maintenance and replacement.

“This project is another example of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to investing in American infrastructure in ways that create good-paying jobs, strengthen safety and security, and address the challenge of climate change,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “Using domestic, lower-carbon construction materials is a triple win – creating good-paying American jobs, reducing energy costs, and tackling climate change to ensure a healthy planet for the next generation.”

“GSA looks to utilize our BIL projects as opportunities for local, small businesses to contribute their skills and ingenuity,” said Dan Brown, Regional Commissioner for the GSA Public Buildings Service in the Pacific Rim Region. “At Otay Mesa, we look forward to improving conditions for the traveling public while actively protecting the environment and helping the nation move towards more sustainable construction materials. This funding provided GSA with the opportunity to make an important contract award and continue our work improving this binational transportation infrastructure to better support the federal inspection agencies’ mission, while lessening the impact on the environment.”

The construction work is expected to begin Spring 2023. Over the course of the project, the project team will need to close up to two lanes at a time to demolish and remove the existing asphalt, divert at least 50% of total non-hazardous construction and demolition waste materials, reinstall or fix underground utilities, and pour the new low-embodied carbon concrete. The paving will be installed in phases, closing a maximum of two northbound vehicle inspection lanes and booths at any time, leaving at least 11 inspection lanes available for vehicle inspection operations.

In March, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Buy Clean Initiative, GSA issued new standards for the concrete and asphalt used in nationwide GSA construction, modernization, and paving projects – the first standards in the U.S. to apply beyond a local jurisdiction.

GSA is responsible for constructing and maintaining LPOEs along the nation’s borders in partnership with and support of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Customs and Border Protection and other federal inspection agencies. Through the BIL, GSA is modernizing LPOEs along the Canadian and Mexican borders. These upgrades will strengthen supply chains, create good-paying jobs, enhance safety and security, and provide sustainable solutions to keep these ports operating efficiently and effectively for years to come.

Learn more about this and all other projects at the Otay Mesa Land Port of Entry at www.gsa.gov/otaymesa.

###

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.

Source: United States General Services Administration

December 5, 2022

89+ acre property now available in Laguna Niguel

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced public auction details for the sale of the approximately 89-acre federal property in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

The site will be sold via an online auction that will start at 9 a.m. PST Tuesday, March 7, at RealEstateSales.gov. Each bidder is required to submit a bid registration of $300,000 and the minimum starting bid is $70,000,000 (USD).

The property will be available for inspection for registered bidders who have paid the registration deposit of $300,000 by appointment for scheduled tours in February and March 2023. Additional information about the property and the auction can be found online at gsa.gov/LagunaRidge.

“The sale of Laguna Ridge is one example of GSA’s commitment to right-sizing the federal real estate portfolio,” said Dan Brown, Acting Regional Administrator for GSA’s Pacific Rim Region. “The sale of this large parcel of land in Laguna Niguel creates an economic development opportunity in Orange County while generating proceeds for the U.S. taxpayer.”

GSA encourages developers, investors, and other potential buyers to consider this opportunity. The Laguna Ridge property, also known as the Chet Holifield Federal Building, is located in Laguna Niguel, approximately 4 miles from the Pacific coastline. The 7-story building (1.05M+ gross square feet) is currently used as a federal office building. This prime property is surrounded by a mix of retail, small office, and residential land uses, and is highly accessible from local road and highway networks, transportation facilities and regional employment centers.

This property was identified as one of the properties for the high-value round under the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA – PL 114-287). Under the FASTA legislation, proceeds from property sales in the high-value round will be used to fund further potential sales of unneeded federal property and consolidation actions to save taxpayer funds.

The public can find more information about this auction at gsa.gov/LagunaRidge or by contacting Tom Doszkocs at 619-557-5029 or LagunaRidge@gsa.gov.

###

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.

Source: United States General Services Administration

November 22, 2022

The student competition seeks to engage architecture and design students to discover innovative opportunities to create barrier-free federal spaces

WASHINGTON – Today, as part of their commitment to ensuring federal spaces are accessible, equitable, and inclusive, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and Challenge.Gov are launching Access for All, a student design competition for barrier-free spaces in federal buildings.

Federal facilities are typically designed with a compliance-based approach in mind. That can create barriers to common access and equal experience, which can impact individuals’ ability to fully participate in public life. As one example, restroom facilities follow and comply with all pertinent building codes, but might not consider access for all. Other examples that could benefit from integrating universal design include using ramps versus elevators-only and innovative new options for low-light energy requirements that consider those with low-vision. These and other disparities can disproportionately burden members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities (short-term, long-term, visible or not visible, mobility), women, and parents or caretakers of dependents. Finding innovative solutions that reduce disparity for all communities is a goal for GSA’s Office of Design and Construction.

The Access for All design competition will support GSA’s commitment to advancing accessibility and providing an equitable experience in federal buildings owned and operated by GSA. The Challenge.Gov competition will stimulate innovation among America’s architecture students by rewarding universal design ideas that improve inclusivity for federal workers and members of the public, while optimizing government resources and adding value to taxpayers. These ideas could include a broad range of modification solutions, including design and configuration that support the broadest set of needs for users while creating accessible facilities.

This design competition will:

• Invest in a framework that will advance accessibility and improve inclusivity for federal employees and the general public.
• Engage students from across the academic spectrum to include community college architecture programs and professional schools.
• Engage students from architecture and interior design, construction science, and facilities management.
• Serve as a stepping stone to accommodate and include a more diverse federal workforce.

“Whether you work in a federal building or visit one to get the services you need, you should find a space that allows you to fully participate in public life,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “GSA continues to strive toward that ideal, and we want the next generation of designers to bring their great ideas to the table.”

“Federal buildings play an important role for communities and for the people who occupy and visit them,” said Nina Albert, Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration. “The Access for All Challenge.Gov competition is part of an ongoing effort to generate new ideas about how we address universal design and accessibility issues in federal facilities and provide positive examples of what is achievable.”

Accessibility, the foundation on which to build diversity, equity and inclusion, is a key ingredient to providing barrier-free facilities and equal opportunities for the public and the entire federal workforce. Strengthening accessibility to and within buildings will also enhance the federal government’s ability to recruit and retain diverse talent from across our nation by providing resources and opportunities open to all.

As the nation’s largest employer, the federal government – through the U.S. General Services Administration and the buildings it manages – is the public face for many government services. As such, the federal government strives to be a model of convenience, fairness, and safety for its workforce and for the people who are using their services. Through recent Presidential Executive Orders, achieving equitable outcomes for people from historically and socially underserved communities is a priority alongside ensuring that the federal government’s workforce and mission delivery reflects the diversity of the American people. This challenge facilitates and expands upon the model the federal government strives to maintain and enhance.

###

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.