Extending the Legacy Gsa Historic Building Stewardship |2011 Cover
EXTENDING THE LEGACY GSA HISTORIC BUILDING STEWARDSHIP |2011 COVER: BIRCH BAYH FEDERAL BUILDING AND U.S. COURTHOUSE INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA PHOTO: CAROL M. HIGHSMITH PHOTOGRAPHY, INC. 150 A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMISSIONER, During my first appointment as Commissioner of Public Buildings under the Clinton administration, the Public Buildings Service (PBS) reassessed its approach to preservation. The effort resulted in Held in Public Trust: GSA Strategy for Using Historic Buildings (1999), a comprehensive analysis of our preservation practices with specific recommendations for improvement. Proudly, the volume was prepared entirely by GSA employees. Most importantly, it was a fresh and innovative perspective, advocating stewardship strategies that would: ensure the financial viability of our historic assets; enhance incentives for pursuing private historic leaseholds; contribute to livable communities; lift the quality of historic building maintenance and repair; and create inviting first impressions within GSA’s historic facilities. We moved forward with this trend-setting philosophy in GSA’s 2002 Legacy Vision—a policy of preference for occupying and investing in buildings that best represent the federal legacy. That report won the National Trust for Historic Preservation 2003 John H. Chafee Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy. The following year, President Bush issued Executive Order 13287 Preserve America, establishing federal stewardship accountability based largely on the strategies GSA pioneered with Held in Public Trust. Today, we continue to amplify and refine PBS’s preservation legacy. Our track record is impressive. Highlights include relocating GSA regional headquarters in Atlanta and San Francisco to vacant, city-center public buildings; harnessing the energy and resources of neighborhood advocates in historic Forest Glen, Maryland, to champion livable redevelopment of the surplused National Park Seminary; and, in the case of U.S.
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