As the General Services Administration waits to see how much construction funding congressional appropriators will provide for FY2015, the reality of a more austere overall budget environment is reshaping the way GSA works with the architecture-engineering-construction industry, says Michael Gelber, deputy commissioner of GSA's Public Buildings Service.
Gelber told a joint Design-Build Institute of America-Society of American Military Engineers symposium in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19 that GSA is striving to modernize its approach to project delivery and design. It is using more energy-saving performance contracts to help finance projects. It also is looking to the private sector to find ways to trim federal buildings' overall footprint. Moreover, GSA is seeking novel ideas to design space for a more mobile, transient workforce, he said.