The GSA's new office smells like wet drywall — and has mice

The General Services Administration just moved into a shiny new building in Washington. The lease is steep — $48 million a year for 1.7 million square feet. The rent is higher than the old building, but the old building was 70 years old. The new one should be better. It isn't.

Workers are finding mice in the ceiling voids — the same ones the old building had. The drywall is sagging and caving in. The water tastes cloudy and has a chemical edge. People are asking whether it's safe to drink. One worker told Wired she looks at the ceiling before going to the bathroom. Another is reading the water quality reports like they're a medical test.

The building was supposed to be a model of sustainability. It got a LEED Gold rating. Instead, it's a leaky, saggy, mouse-filled problem that's costing the taxpayers more than the old place. The GSA says it's working on fixes. The workers say they're just living with it.

Why this matters for us: when a federal agency that runs contracts for the rest of government can't keep its own building from falling apart, take a hard look at the next big contract you sign.