Question:   How Can Post Occupancy Evaluation help you or DGS do a better job?

In terms of the development of office buildings in particular, a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) will launch a new dimension in the provision of service for the DGS. The State of California builds its public facilities to enable its agencies to perform their missions effectively. The successful development and management of these facilities by the DGS is primary to its own mission. Uncovering the ways and means to correct or modify the development and management to be more effective is crucial to that mission.

Not only are the State's office buildings a significant investment in terms of building stock, but they represent an investment of people's lives, those that occupy and manage them, as well as being the setting in which those lives unfold each day. Contrary to the private sector's perception, many State employees spend more time at work than at home each day (at least while awake). If the State had no tenants, there would be no need to build the buildings to house them; these occupants justify the very need of the office facilities we build.

How an employee is affected by his/her physical environment, and how that environment allows or limits the function of that employee, is crucial to our knowledge to be able to "build better." From the ease of access, to the foot-candle availability, we, as builders, can only create, and hope that we're successful. We may save energy, but at what cost to those who inhabit the buildings? We may save money initially by doing one thing or another, but at what cost to those who inhabit the buildings? At what cost to those who manage them? At what cost to future changes?

Learning the answers limits future mistakes and allows changes to make existing conditions better, not "lived with." Finding out what works or what doesn't, and using that information to make the future facilities even better gives us, as builders, a tremendous sense of accomplishment, as well as increasing our knowledge. Know too that this can only help those who occupy and manage those better buildings to be better at their jobs as well.

Nick Cimino, Winning Entry
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