U.S. General Services Administration
Region 8 Team Earns Top Federal Recognition
By Richard Stebbins
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A Region 8 project team was selected for the agency-level Gears of Government Award for their U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Consolidation project in Salt Lake City, part of a select group of eight teams and one individual announced today by GSA Administrator Emily Murphy.
The Gears of Government Awards recognizes individuals and teams across the Federal workforce, both within and across agencies, whose performance and dedication support
exceptional delivery of key outcomes for the American people: mission results, customer
service, and accountable stewardship, according to the Performance.gov website.
“This year’s Gears of Government awards recipients have made exceptional contributions to the federal government and exemplified our values—service, accountability and innovation,” said Murphy. “These recipients are helping GSA modernize the federal government in key areas of real estate, acquisition, technology and other mission-support services.”
The design team of Jason Sielcken, Loreen Sullivan and Joan Amend epitomized each of those with this project - supporting the mission of PBS to reduce the federal footprint while delivering lease cost savings, provide agencies with a work space they can be proud of and ensure maximum savings to the taxpayer.
The USDA Consolidation project brought the Forest Service Geospatial Technology Application Center and the Farm Service Administration’s Aerial Photography Field Office to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building from leased space.
Not only did the team bring these agencies into remodeled federal space, they provided a new modern work space environment that will give both agencies more flexibility and access to technology to be more collaborative.
“As design progressed, the new space became a catalyst for the agency to identify new ways to manage their business moving forward, making them more streamlined and poised to serve the public and their customers for the next 20 years,” said Sielcken, Architect and Sr. Project Manager. “The new space is designed with collaboration, space flexibility, and integrated technology at its core, all of which will improve the agency’s ability to be competitive in attracting the next generation of talent.”
The consolidation of the two agencies into federal space saved about $2.5 million in annual private market lease costs plus reduced USDA’s footprint by 54% and saved taxpayers over $74 million.
The project not only reduced these agencies’ footprint but it also solved their film storage issues and provided them with a more energy efficient work space to help improve business operations.