GSA, through the Center for Historic Buildings, provides technical and strategic expertise to promote the viability, reuse, and care of historic buildings GSA owns, leases, and has the opportunity to acquire.

The Center provides technical support to GSA business lines, project planners, and field operations to cost effectively maintain, upgrade, and reuse historic properties in a manner that achieves federal stewardship goals. This mission requires GSA to be on the cutting edge in developing innovative design solutions and building investment strategies that are economical, extend the useful life of historic structures, and minimize the negative effects of changes needed to keep buildings safe, functional, and efficient.

The Center collaborates with other PBS programs, federal agencies, and non-profit organizations on smart stewardship initiatives to improve the impression our buildings make on visitors, to accommodate tenant needs within a preservation framework, and to increase federal use of privately owned historic buildings.

These initiatives include development, in cooperation with GSA's Design Excellence Program and Office of Portfolio Management, of an investment decision methodology to address the unique challenges of GSA's recent and now aging modernist buildings that, along with GSA's traditional historic buildings, make up America's public building legacy.

They also include strategies to make the most of available legal authorities and partnership opportunities to keep historic buildings occupied and viable, by outleasing underutilized federal historic buildings to private entities, leasing non-federally owned community landmarks for federal use and, when appropriate, by transferring ownership of historic buildings no longer needed for federal use to others who can provide better preservation and public access. The program is staffed by preservation professionals located in GSA's National Office, assisted by specialists in GSA regions.

Please see GSA's order of procedures for historic properties ADM 1020.2 , dated October 19, 2003, and search the Historic Federal Building Database to learn about all of GSA's historic buildings.