Ask the Expert

At times, when dealing with government, we all feel like there are certain questions that were designed to be unanswerable. The times seem to be getting more frequent these days.

Ask the expert is designed to identify and/or delve into those devilishly obtuse areas of government vernacular to bring clarity to areas that have eluded some of us. We will take our direction from our friends in both the public and private sectors and, wherever possible, light the path to a more detailed explanation of the question of the day.

Should you have a question about what a word or acronym means, or how to interpret current regulations, or just never really understood how some aspect of government contracting works, this is the place to raise the questions and get a meaningful answer. Thanks for your participation.

Today’s topic

Today’s topic comes to us from the private sector: "I know we use some confusing language when we talk about building measurement in our industry, but recently I looked into proposing on a Veteran's Administration project and I was not sure if we were speaking the same square footage language or not. Can you help clarify this?" Perplexed in Kansas City

Wow! This is a good question. We thought we knew the answer, but as we delved into this area we learned a thing or two as well. To help clarify this issue we have prepared a chart that we hope explains the progression of Veterans Affairs space programming from 'net' square feet to 'departmental gross' square feet, and on to 'estimated internal gross' square feet. In addition, we show how these terms relate to some of the more common square footage measurements customary in the private sector (i.e. rentable/leasable SF and building gross SF.)

As always we welcome your questions and comments on the topics raised.

Knowledge develops where questions and discussion are allowed to circulate in a friendly environment.