Case Study: California Division of the State Architect (DSA) accelerates school construction approvals with Box

The CA Department of General Services Division of the State Architect gets schools built no matter what

The California Department of General Services’ Division of the State Architect (DSA) oversees design and construction approval for K–12 and community college facilities. Before 2020 the DSA relied on in-person plan drop-offs and regional reviews; when COVID-19 forced most work online, the agency needed a way to keep complex, multi-stakeholder school projects moving without face-to-face meetings.

Because the DSA had already adopted an electronic plan-review (EPR) process and implemented Box as a central content platform, teams shifted smoothly to cloud-based collaboration using Box plus Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Bluebeam, Zoom and other tools, and launched a remote intranet for staff. The result: projects continued with fewer delays, travel time and costs were reduced, communications improved or stayed the same for most staff (43% said better, 54% said about the same), and the agency became more agile and resilient.

Division of the State Architect

Beth Sanchez

Associate Governmental Program Analyst/Certification Outreach & Metrics