The Federal Building gets a facelift
Several people stop on a skywalk bridge to watch, through the glass wall, a crew work on the Federal Building between Second Avenue and Third Street on Walnut Street in downtown Des Moines. Men below affix panels of glass to a large configuration of suction cups, which a crane then lifts to the crew in the scaffolding high above. The windows replace narrower panes, and are part of a $12 million renovation of the building’s exterior.
“The building was built in the mid-1960s,” said Greg Beachy, property management director of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Iowa office. “It has suffered with wind and leakage problems, pretty much from when it was built.”
He said various methods were employed to curtail the problems over the years, but it was eventually decided that a new skin or façade was necessary. An interior renovation project is also planned. Construction of the façade is slated to cost $12 million, and the interior renovation is expected to cost $42 million, not including design. Design expenses typically amount to about 6 percent of construction costs, according to John Topi, a GSA project executive in the property development division.
“That project will encompass an entire gutting and remodeling of interior spaces,” Beachy said. “Preliminary work is under way as we speak. We are soliciting architecture and engineering firms to design that project for us and plan to announce our selection by the end of January or early February. Once we announce our selected architect, it will take about 18 months to design. The current plan is to start construction in 2006.” Construction is then expected to continue through 2011. The façade project began in March and is expected to be completed by next December.
When the interior project begins, the GSA plans to leave the building mostly occupied. Two floors will be vacated and their occupants relocated to a leased location, ideally downtown. Then the remaining agencies will be shuffled within the building. This will allow the agencies with special requirements for space and security to stay in the Federal Building throughout the project.
Before reconstruction began, a financial analysis was conducted to determine whether building a new structure, renovating the existing building or leasing elsewhere would be most viable and provide the best return on the taxpayers’ investment, Topi said. It was determined that renovation was the best option.
“Personally, it’s one of the main buildings in my inventory, one of the most significant, so I’m very excited,” Beachy said. “It’s almost a 40-year-old building, and we’re giving it new life for at least another 40 years.”
“In general, our philosophy is to create as open an office landscape as possible,” Topi said. He calls it “office hotelling,” the concept that workers are based elsewhere, but go into the office periodically. This requires less space for stationary desks, but more meeting spaces in which groups and teams can gather.
Beachy says the government is trying to break free of the public perception of federal buildings as “bland, basic, boring and not necessarily professional” to create modern office buildings, “making a superior workplace for the federal worker in a cost-effective manner.”
The changes are already evident inside the building. On an unchanged side of the building, the windows are divided by narrow slats, creating an effect reminiscent of bars. On the north face, the larger windows flood the office with light.
“People in renovated structures tend to be more productive,” Toki said. He says the benefits of the project go beyond better energy efficiency: “If your workspace is new, you have a better feeling about your work, are more productive and better serve the taxpayer.”