The GSA Adaptable Workplace Laboratory

Abstract

This paper is a progress report on the Adaptable Workplace Laboratory (AWL) within the Headquarters of the General Services Administration (GSA) of the United States of America. GSA owns, operates, leases and rents real estate for major U.S. Government agencies and departments, such as the Environmental Projection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce. About 1.5 million office workers are housed nationwide in GSA owned, leased or rented buildings. Consequently, GSA is one of the world’s largest landlords.

To demonstrate advanced systems integration concepts, to create a platform for experimentation with innovative information technologies, furniture, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning (HVAC), lighting and building control subsystems, and, most importantly, to create organizational know-how with the goal to better serve its clients, GSA is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. This partnership is to create the Adaptable Workplace Lab (AWL), a evolutionary workspace on the 7^th floor of the 3^rd wing of the GSA Headquarters in Washington, DC. This 10,000 sq. ft. space will feature raised flooring, plug & play non-imbedded mobile technologies, and provide for individual control of environmental systems, workstations and workgroups.