GSA Criteria

The Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service establishes design standards and criteria for new buildings, major and minor alterations, and work in historic structures for the Public Buildings Service (PBS) of the General Services Administration (GSA). This document contains policy and technical criteria to be used in the programming, design, and documentation of GSA buildings.

The Facilities Standards is a building standard: it is not a guideline, textbook, handbook, training manual or substitute for the technical competence expected of a design or construction professional.

This cost-estimating and cost-management criteria document supports building construction programs within the Public Buildings Service (PBS) of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). This document presents the technical and administrative requirements for routine cost-estimating and cost-management tasks involved in a construction project's planning and execution stages, and defines cost-estimating practices and standards for professional services. This document replaces the previously issued GSA Handbook P 3440.5 and all associated versions.

The instructions and criteria in this document are applicable to programming, design, construction management, and other professional-services contracts that involve cost-estimating and cost-management tasks. The criteria for practices and documentation requirements apply to all professional services activities, whether provided through contract or by in-house GSA/PBS staff.

The Building Commissioning Guide provides the overall framework and process for building commissioning from project planning through tenant occupancy, keys to success within each step and the ways that each team member supports the process of commissioning. While recognizing that every project is unique and that the required activities will vary on every project, this Guide provides recommendations, minimum requirements and best practices based upon industry guidance and GSA experience. encourages the use of these best practices to ensure completeness and consistency nationwide and to address the facility needs of the Customer Agency.

An analysis of mechanical lifts in U.S. courthouse courtrooms was commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Courthouse Management Group and completed in March 2003. The intent of this Analysis is to: (a) develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental problems with current lift system designs and installations; and (b) provide recommendations that serve as the basis for detailed performance criteria to eliminates these problems on future projects. The recommendations drawn from this Analysis should help all those concerned to better plan for the incorporation of the mechanical lift system into courtrooms at the appropriate time in the design process, with the least impact on the accommodation of functions in the courtroom well.

This guide to sustainable development will help readers move beyond existing "green" and "high-performance" strategies that provide incremental improvements, to ones that will sustain the Government's™ operations within the scale of the Earth's™ closed system. The "Guide" and its four-section "Appendix" include concepts, tools and strategies for operationalizing sustainability that will simplify every-day decision-making and provide guidance for achieving long-term goals.

This Project Planning Guide has been developed to assist all of those who develop GSA's Capital Program in evaluating, developing, and implementing federal facilities projects.

Section 609 of GSA's Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2006 (P.L. 109-115) asked GSA to report on its use of sustainable building rating systems. GSA chose to have a separate report done by independent experts to articulate criteria and reasons for using a rating system and to research more fully what is available to the public.

In drafting its report on Green Building Rating Systems, GSA sought a credible, third-party organization that would examine all the possibilities for the use of rating systems. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (one of the national laboratories managed by the Department of Energy) is an independent, academically solid organization that is well acquainted with green building. In addition, as a National Lab, they maintain rigorous standards for peer review. Of note, the owners of the Rating Systems reviewed the descriptions of their systems to ensure accuracy; and outside experts reviewed the findings and analysis.

The Sustainable Building Rating Systems Summary is organized in sections which sequentially collect, narrow and filter building rating system information to those which would be fitting for GSA's business objectives. Each of the rating systems examined has merits, and GSA will continue to evaluate them, and others, as they develop to determine how they may be applied to GSA projects in the future.