Recognizing
its remarkable contribution to design that enhances the quality of life
and community identity, the American Architectural Foundation selected
the U.S. General Services Administration Public Buildings Service (GSA
PBS) as the 2004 recipient of the AAF Keystone Award.
Especially
through its Design and Construction Excellence programs, GSA has shown
its commitment to fostering public involvement in the design process.
Presentation of the award is planned for March 3, 2004, at the AAF Accent
on Architecture Gala to be held at the National Building Museum in Washington,
D.C. Representing GSA will be PBS Administrator F. Joseph Moravec and
former PBS Administrator Robert A. Peck, Hon. AIA. Also to be recognized
at the ceremony will be GSA Chief Architect Edward A. Feiner, FAIA. Although
the Keystone Award itself is not given to design professionals, all three
men will be honored because of their key roles in the success of the GSA
Design and Construction Excellence programs, explained AAF President/CEO
Ronald E. Bogle.
The AAF created the Keystone Award in 1998 as part of its mission to
educate the public on how excellent design enhances people’s lives
by improving the places they live, pray, work, and play. The 501(c)(3)
educational organization is governed by an independent board of regents
that consists of public, corporate, philanthropic, and professional leaders.
A committee of the AAF Board of Regents considers the Keystone Award nominations
each year and reserves the right to defer an award in any year if it determines
there is no suitable nomination.
Past recipients of the award include the Honorable Richard M. Daley,
mayor of Chicago; Rick Lowe, founding director of Project Row Houses,
Houston; and the Honorable Joseph P. Riley Jr., mayor of Charleston, S.C.
Exemplary
merits
of the PBS
In its role as landlord to the civilian U.S. federal government, the GSA
PBS has set its vision on being the best real estate organization in the
world, providing a superior workplace for the federal worker, and delivering
superior value to the American taxpayer, stated the nomination. With a
total inventory of more than 330 million square feet of workspace, the
GSA PBS supports a million federal employees in 2,000 American communities.
This comprises more than 1,600 government-owned buildings, or approximately
55 percent of GSA’s total inventory. The remaining 45 percent is
in privately owned, leased facilities. Among the facilities GSA maintains
are more than 100 childcare centers.
Through its internationally recognized Design and Construction Excellence
programs, PBS engages the best private-sector architects, construction
managers, and engineers to design and build award-winning courthouses,
border stations, federal office buildings, laboratories, and data-processing
centers. Further, it works to restore and maintain the vitality of communities
where GSA has a presence.
“Where we build, we usually generate a lot of economic growth,”
Feiner said in the December AIA/J AIA
Journal of Architecture. “We just unveiled the new federal
courthouse proposed for Buffalo, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, and the
positive response from the community and the media has been remarkable.
Commitment to the downtowns is one of the most important aspects of avoiding
the disposable society.”
Design excellence includes streamlined
selection
GSA established the Design Excellence Program in 1994 to change the course
of public architecture in the federal government. Through collaborative
partnerships, GSA is implementing the goals of the 1962 Guiding Principles
for Federal Architecture:
- Producing facilities that reflect the dignity, enterprise, vigor,
and stability of the federal government and emphasizing designs that
embody the finest contemporary architectural thought
- Avoiding an official style
- Incorporating the work of living artists in public buildings.
In
this effort, each building is to be both an individual expression of design
excellence and part of a larger body of work representing the best that
America’s designers and artists can leave to later generations.
To find the best, most creative talent, the Design Excellence Program
has simplified the way GSA selects architects and engineers for construction
and major renovation projects and opened up opportunities for emerging
talent, small, women-owned, and disadvantaged businesses. The program
recognizes and celebrates the creativity and diversity of the American
people.
The first phase of the Design Excellence Program architect/engineer
selection is based on the evaluation of portfolios. Only later do firms
have to establish complete design teams and submit more extensive government
forms. Selection may also include a design competition. Together, these
strategies keep the emphasis on quality and minimize red tape. Included
in the selection process is design review by distinguished private-sector
architects, engineers, designers, public-arts administrators, design educators,
and critics whom the PBS commissioner appoints to the 70- to 80-person
GSA National Register of Peer Professionals.
Copyright 2004 The American Institute of Architects.
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