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[Dr. N. Subramanian]

Cool offices: GSA's Mid-Atlantic Region
by Clara Lefton Dec 12, 2016

The government has put together an Old City office focused on sustainability, increased productivity and employee wellness for the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Mid-Atlantic Region. Everything from standing desks, personal rooms and floor to ceiling whiteboards all earned the office a Gold LEED certification for the interior.

The GSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, Sara Manzano-Díaz, who was named a 2016 Women of Distinction, took the Philadelphia Business Journal on a private tour.
“We need to think about the future and tech has changed how we work today- being mobile internally or teleworking from home or another office is an important capability...we want this space to serve as a model for GSA federal customers," she said.

The GSA moved from the Strawbridge building to the Dow building in October 2015 after three years of planning. This included forming an executive steering committee that would meet frequently with an architect. One of their main goals was to address the outcome of the GSA's most recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which said workers' highest concern is teleworking and flexible work arrangements.

The entire office is an open space with collaborative rooms, which attempts to, "open up communications and flatten up the hierarchy," according to Manzano-Díaz. The only employees who have a closed door are legal counsel.

The agency also included digitized every document possible, except those that legally needed to be in print, and took other steps to reduce the size of their footprint by 61,000 square feet. The smaller space means less annual rent, which dropped by a third to save $1.3 million per year.

After signing their lease the GSA realized it didn't actually even need all of the space it had and now let's the United States Department of Commerce have an office there as well.

Address: 100 S Independence Mall W, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Built: 1964 as the Rohm and Haas Corporate headquarters, although it is no longer.

Office opened: October 2015

Employees: 618

Building Size: 350,000 square feet

Office size: 94,000 square feet

Floors: 2.5

Architect/designer: John Trosino of KlingStubbins

Building owner: Keystone

To see the photos of this Cool office, Visit: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2016/12/12/cool-offices-gsas-mid-atlantic-region-rohm-haas.html#g1