A Salute to the U.S. General Services Administration

Honor Award

June 3, 2004

The National Building Museum presented its prestigious annual Honor Award for 2004 to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The Honor Award recognized GSA’s success in creating and maintaining innovative environments for the federal community as well as providing a positive federal presence for the public. GSA was created by Congress as a centralized federal procurement, property management and policy agency. It acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies, and services for over one million workers located in 8,000 owned and leased buildings in 2000 communities.

Through its "Design and Construction Excellence" programs, GSA engages outstanding private-sector architects, engineers and contractors to design and build award-winning courthouses, laboratories, border stations, and federal office buildings. These programs have resulted in extraordinary examples of public architecture, many of which have been recognized with prestigious awards from private organizations such as The American Institute of Architects. New courthouses have been lauded as technologically sophisticated while also powerfully expressing the dignity of the nation’s judicial system. Similarly, innovative border stations offer citizens and visitors welcoming environments while responding to ever-growing security concerns.

Complementing GSA’s leading edge procurement strategies are many other initiatives, including a concerted emphasis on sustainable design and construction, a coordinated preservation program for existing federal structures, and a comprehensive building documentation effort. Initiatives such as these have restored many Americans’ faith in the ability of their government to create buildings that are beautiful without being extravagant—a legacy that may be as important as the structures themselves.

GSA Administrator Stephen A. Perry, along with GSA Commissioners F. Joseph Moravec, Donna Bennett, and Sandra Bates, accepted the award before an audience of more than 1,000 cultural, corporate, political, and building industry leaders. The festive black-tie gala was held on Thursday, June 3rd in the Museum's historic Great Hall, the site of numerous Presidential inaugural balls since 1885.