GSA Observes National Preservation Month

GSA #10588 

May 7, 2009
Contact: Susan Sylvester, 202-501-1231
susan.sylvester@gsa.gov

Michael Proul, 202-501-1231
michael.proul@gsa.gov

WASHINGTON – The U.S. General Services Administration has launched a new Web site and poster series highlighting its historically and architecturally significant inventory of federal buildings.

The products are being unveiled in May, which is National Preservation Month. This year’s theme, “This Place Matters,” illustrates historic preservation’s ability to protect and improve communities.

“Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, GSA has been entrusted to spend $5.55 billion on approximately 250 projects nationwide," said Anthony Costa, GSA’s Public Buildings Service Acting Commissioner. "More than half of this funding will be spent on our historic buildings.” 

With more than 480 buildings listed in or eligible for the National Register, GSA has preserved legacy buildings that reflect the nation’s strength, spirit, and imagination. To highlight the collection and officially mark Preservation Month, GSA’s Center for Historic Buildings has released several new products. The Historic Building Web site is now online at www.gsa.gov/historicbuildings.  The site features interactive exhibits on the history, geography and architectural style of GSA public buildings in the United States. Virtual visitors can also browse through images, films, and architectural descriptions for more than 200 GSA buildings.

GSA also offers the 2009 Historic Building Poster and Brochure Series online at www.gsa.gov/historicbuildingposters. The series highlights more than 100 of GSA’s most significant historic buildings. These featured buildings span more than 150 years of construction and were designed by such architects as Cass Gilbert, Alfred B. Mullet, Robert Mills, Paul P. Cret and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

GSA continues to be recognized by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and others for its contributions to the collective history, public landmarks, and legacy of the nation’s historic properties.

Preserve America, Executive Order 13287, establishes federal policy to provide leadership in preserving America’s heritage by actively advancing the protection, enhancement, and contemporary use of the historic properties owned by the federal government.

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GSA provides a centralized delivery system of products and services to the federal government, leveraging its enormous buying power to obtain the best value for taxpayers.
• Founded in 1949, GSA manages more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings and 213,000 vehicles.
• GSA is the manager of USA.gov, the official portal to federal government information and services.
• GSA’s mission to provide superior workplaces, expert technology solutions, acquisition services, purchasing, and E-Gov travel solutions and management policies, at best value, allows federal agencies to focus on their core missions.

Did You Know? GSA’s historic buildings inventory includes not only courthouses, custom houses, land ports of entry, and federal office buildings, but also such properties originally constructed as a school, a bus station, and an innovative hospital for the insane.