Sacramento -- The California Department of General Services (DGS), the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), and the City of Sacramento's Department of Public Works joined forces today to start construction of the 25-story, 950,000 square-foot Cal/EPA state office building.

 

A ceremonial "brick breaking" signaled the start of the project located at 1001 I Street, across from City Hall and Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento. In the spirit of interagency and state and local government cooperation, DGS Director Peter Stamison, State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary Joanne Corday Kozberg, Cal/EPA Secretary Peter Rooney, and Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna donned hard hats and jackhammered a few bricks from the existing two-level parking structure that the building will replace.

 

"This will be a fiscally prudent and environmentally savvy project, " said DGS Director Peter Stamison "California leads the nation in environmental protection and we aim to do our part for the environment and the City of Sacramento. The consolidation effort, meantime, will save taxpayers millions of dollars."

 

The Cal/EPA building will be home to 3,500 employees working for California's environmental boards, the Department of Conservation, and the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. The structure will allow Cal/EPA to consolidate its work force and improve its effectiveness and efficiency on behalf of taxpayers. Currently, the boards and departments within Cal/EPA are housed in 26 locations around the Sacramento area.

 

The building's environmentally friendly features will include the use of recycled materials in construction, floor plans designed to take maximum advantage of natural light, "smart lights" and light emitting diodes (LEDs) that will hold electricity costs down, and an air conditioning system designed to feed fresh air, instead of just refrigerated air, to every floor of the building, with the result that the building will be energy efficient.

 

The project budget, excluding financing costs, is approximately $172 million. The building is scheduled for completion in 2001.