GSA In Your Neighborhood (or Town)

During the 1950s and 1960s, new post office construction proliferated across the United States. Most of these structures were based on schematics developed by the General Services Administration (GSA), which had been established in 1949. For branch and rural banks, local architects and contractors worked with the GSA plans. For larger central post offices, the GSA frequently selected local firms or teams of firms to develop original building plans. In New Orleans, the former Mid-City Branch (4315 Bienville Street, 1959) was an example of the GSA schematic plan type, whereas plans for the $21 million Post Office and Federal Building (701 Loyola Avenue, 1962) were developed by local architects Freret & Wolf; August Perez & Assoc.; and Favrot, Reed, Mathes & Bergman. The latter was modeled after the United Nations building and at the time of its construction, was the largest federal building project in the South.

If you are interested in GSA buildings of the 1950s-1970s, see Growth, Efficiency and Modernism (Washington, DC: General Services Administration, 2003).

Image above: GSA. Schematic Plan Type C-3. Circa 1966. Project No. 1119. William T. Nolan Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.