Government Facility Engineering
Government agencies hold the largest real estate portfolio in the nation, and they are leading the way in alternative delivery methods and achieving genuine sustainability by requiring all federal buildings to reduce fossil-fuel-generated energy consumption to zero by 2030.
Client Relationships Going Back Decades
From creating design guidelines and writing best-practices documents, to modeling and designing new facilities, to examining post-occupancy results, measuring client satisfaction and validating building performance—Syska provides a wide range of services for our government clients, including the General Services Administration (GSA), U.S. Department of State, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland Procurement Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pentagon, U.S. Navy and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Green Proving-Ground Technology
With the ambitious goal of achieving net zero energy consumption and carbon emissions by 2030, federal government agencies are focused on innovative technologies to help achieve that goal by improving building performance. GSA’s Green Proving Ground (GPG) platform identifies specific technologies that advance the 2030 challenge; these include building envelope optimization, energy management, water conservation strategies, and on-site power and renewable energy systems design. These are the same strategies Syska has applied on federal projects dating back to before the GPG was established, and Syska is actively engaged with the GPG to evaluate new and emerging strategies and technologies.
Alternative Procurement Models
Syska works with government agencies under public-private partnership (P3), design-build and integrated project delivery (IPD) contracts, recently delivering the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach, California, U.S. EPA’s Region 8 headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and the Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building in Miramar, Florida.
For the trailblazing Los Angeles Federal Courthouse, which opened in the summer of 2016, the contract was structured with an energy performance fee: The final fee received by the design-build team is based on achieving an aggressive building energy-performance target during the first year of operation, and is clearly defined in the contract. Syska fully supports these performance-driven styled delivery methods. The Long Beach Courthouse municipal funding was structured similarly, with energy and water conservation metrics that must be achieved to avoid penalties accruing into the monthly rent.
Intelligent Building Systems
Government agencies, such as the EPA, focus on qualifying emerging technologies, investing federal funds to stimulate private-sector interest in feasibility research, and development of sustainable design options. Our award-winning design of EPA’s Region 8 headquarters became a case study for federal office buildings with significant energy-saving goals. By focusing on high-performance building design, including energy efficiency, durability, life-cycle performance, occupant productivity and well-being, the project is one of the most studied in the nation. The U.S. Department of Energy and academic and private-sector researchers use the building as a demonstration project for sustainable performance and tenant satisfaction.
Leading the Way
Syska has supported government agencies at every level and on projects of every scale for more than 85 years. We’re even more excited about the future as federal agencies are setting the bar for high-performance buildings.
