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Division of the State Architect: Overview
The Division of the State Architect's (DSA) primary role in State government is to ensure that California's K-12 schools and community colleges are seismically safe and accessible to all. It fulfills this role by reviewing construction project plans for structural safety, fire and life safety, and accessibility (that is, access by disabled persons). In this role, DSA works closely with school districts and designers. In a typical year, DSA reviews about 4,000 project plans. In addition, DSA provides oversight of construction and testing labs.
Closely associated with this role is the DSA-Certified Inspector Program, whereby DSA tests, certifies, and every four years, recertifies, individuals wishing to become school inspectors. There are approximately 2,200 DSA-Certified Inspectors.
In addition, DSA is responsible for ensuring that all public buildings in the State are accessible to persons with disabilities. In that role, DSA reviews plans and is in the process of developing a mandated program that will test and certify individuals to perform access investigations and plan review. This program is called CASP-Certified Access Specialist Program.
Other major DSA programs and activities include the:
- DSA Advisory Board, hosted by DSA and made up of various committees who proactively promote the safety and excellence of public building construction and advise DSA on important issues; and
- DSA Academy, offering technical classes for architects, engineers and others;
- the new Collaborative Process for Project Development and Review; and
- new electronic plan review initiative.
DSA consists of a headquarters office in Sacramento and four regional offices located in Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles and Oakland. Newly established satellite offices are located in Bakersfield and Riverside. While the regional offices carry out project plan review, construction oversight and project close-out activities, the Headquarters office is primarily responsible for the development and administration of statewide programs and the recruitment of new DSA employees. |
