Existing buildings · Defined
Gross building area (GBA)
A measure of a building’s total floor area under a specified measurement convention.
Why it matters
State the convention and included spaces before using the figure for benchmarking. Gross, rentable, usable, and zoning floor areas are not automatically interchangeable.
In practice
A project example
A cost comparison is distorted because one building’s area includes structured parking and the other’s excludes it.
General educational guidance from KOW Building Consultants. Examples are illustrative, not project records. The applicable contract, standard, program, and jurisdiction control the requirements for a specific assignment.