Our safety, well-being, economic vitality, and quality of life are intimately tied to the services administered and delivered from our public building infrastructure. Unfortunately, the current stock of public buildings in California is deficient and will become more so without increased investment. Buildings have a fixed useful life span and we must not only protect our current investments but also plan for their eventual replacement. We need to build flexible, high performance, physical environments utilizing the adoption of new building practices and techniques. High performance and green building technologies provide an opportunity to make better use of our resources, such as energy, materials and water, and reduce operating costs.

A significant number of California public buildings—including courts, health care facilities, libraries, museums and public office buildings—were built in the mid-twentieth century. These facilities are suffering from years of deferred maintenance due to limited and inconsistent State and county funding. This is especially true for historic public buildings. Beyond the need to maintain and preserve our current inventory, additional capacity will also be required to meet the needs of growth and to provide access to services in currently underserved areas. The Department of General Services estimates that over the next 10 years, up to 6 million square feet of additional space will be needed by the State to provide public services. The Joint Task Force on Court Facilities estimates another 5.8 million square feet of court space is needed over the next 20 years.