ABOUT SPECIAL PROJECTS: History
Office Locations
Origins
The Special Projects office has a 25-year history within the National Ocean Service, dating back to 1979, when a strategic assessment program was formed in the then Office of Ocean Survey's Office of Coastal Zone Management. The group's name was different then and the mission was conducting national resource assessments rather than assisting NOAA Programs and Program Offices in developing innovative solutions to ocean resource management problems. However, the core values, approach to work, and philosophy regarding the role and importance of public service that was part of that original group remains much the same today. It is this continuity of culture, beliefs, and principles that is the fabric linking past employees of Special Projects (and its predecessor organizations) with the current team of dedicated public servants. Several milestone dates in the history of Special Projects are listed below:
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| Early photo of the Strategic Assessment branch, circa 1985. |
1979 - Strategic assessment at NOAA began when a small group led by Charles "Bud" Ehler (current director of the NOS/International Programs Office) was formed in the Office of Coastal Zone Management to provide technical analyses of coastal resource management issues. Dan Basta (current director of the NOS/National Marine Sanctuaries Program) joined Ehler's team in September 1979.
1983 - The National Ocean Survey was renamed the National Ocean "Service" and coastal management moved to NOS. Here a new Ocean Resource Assessments Division (headed by Ehler) and a Strategic Assessments Branch (SAB) (headed by Basta) were created to house NOS's fledgling assessment program.
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| Group photo of Strategic Assessments Branch taken during the mid-1980s. |
1986 - The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Division was created as a result of a reorganization of SAB and the development of the Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA). Six branches were established to collect and assess national-level thematic data with approximately 75-80 employees. The names and chiefs of the branches were: Data Management and GIS (Peter Grose); Biogeographic Characterization (Mark Monaco); Decision Support Systems (Tom LaPointe); Human Activities Assessment (Maureen Warren); Physical Environments Assessment (John Klein); and Pollution Sources Characterization (Dan Farrow).
Major products from this time period include: Strategic Data Atlases for: East Coast of the U.S.; Gulf of Mexico; Bering, Chukchi , and Beaufort Seas; and West Coast of North America; National Estuarine Inventory; Coastal Trends Report series; Coastal Assessment Framework; Estuarine Living Marine Resources Database; National Coastal Wetlands Inventory; 1985, 1990, and 1995 National Shellfish Registers; National Coastal Pollutant Discharge Inventory; National Estuarine Eutrophication Survey; Gulf of Mexico Shellfish Challenge; Gulf of Maine Land-Based Sources of Pollution Inventory; Coastal Ocean Management, Planning, and Assessment System (COMPAS) Decision Support Tool; National Survey on Recreation and Environment; Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Management Plan; Gulf of Mexico Freshwater Inflow Assessment; and Mapfinder Data Portal.
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| Group photo of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) Division taken at the Strategic Assessment Farewell Party, May 1998. |
1998 - NOS underwent a major reorganization. The Office of Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment (ORCA) was eliminated, and the units in ORCA reassigned to other offices in NOS. Special Projects Office (SPO) was formed from portions of the SEA Division. SPO was established as a staff office reporting directly to the NOS AA. Two branches, the Biogeographic Characterization Branch and the Physical Environments Characterization Branch, were moved to the National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science (NCCOS), the new science office within NOS. The remaining four branches of approximately 35-40 employees continued to be led by Dan Basta. These branches were re-organized into three: Integrated Planning Branch (Maureen Warren); National Coastal Assessments Branch (Dan Farrow); and National Communications Branch (Tom LaPointe).
2000 - Dan Basta left to become the Acting Director of the NOS National Marine Sanctuaries Program and Maureen Warren became the Acting Chief of Special Project's two remaining branches: National Coastal Assessments Branch (Dan Farrow) and National Communications Branch (Tom LaPointe). Members of the Integrated Planning Branch joined one of these two branches.
Major projects from this time period include: Coastal Assessment and Data Synthesis Web Site; Delaware Indicators Project; Coastal Ocean Resource Economics; State of the Coast Web Site; Sustainable Seas Web Site; Ocean Explorer Web Site; Report on Current and Planned NOS Environmental Monitoring Activities.
Special Projects Office (SPO) group photo taken in 2000.
2002 - 2004: Special Projects (SP) was reorganized from being a staff office at the NOS headquarters level into a division under the NOS Management and Budget Office (M&B). Maureen Warren left SP to become the Chief Administrative Officer of the National Marine Sanctuary Program. Tom LaPointe's branch was moved into the newly formed Communication and Education Division also within M&B. Approximately 25 employees remained in Special Projects under Dan Farrow's leadership. Two branches were formed: Coastal Resources Assessment Branch (Tom Culliton) and Integrated Planning and Technical Services Branch (Robby Wilson).
Major projects from this time period include: U.S. Marine Managed Areas Inventory; Coral Reef Mapping; NOAA Coral Reef Project Database; National Survey on Recreation and Environment 2005; National Status and Trends (NS&T) Data Portal; Report on NOS Contributions to an Integrated Ocean Observing System; and the NOS Data Explorer Spatial Data Portal.
Special Projects staff retreat at Shepardstown, WV in September 2003.
January 2005 - Present: The Technical Information Services Branch (TISB) began working in a virtual partnership with Special Projects in January 2005. In Fall 2006, TISB officially returned as a third branch in SP. TISB is an integrated group of writers, artists, project managers, technical specialists, and Web developers whose primary focus is designing and producing Web sites. Coupled with Special Project’s expertise in Web-enabled database applications, interactive Internet mapping, and data visualization, this partnership provides NOS with a comprehensive Web site development and production capability.
Major projects from this time period include: the NOS Web site, the Portfields Initiative, the Socioeconomic Trends Web Site, the Coastal Population Report, the Smithsonian Ocean Hall project, and the annual NOAA Restoration Day event.
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| Special Projects staff retreat in 2005. |
Office Locations
April 1993 - Present
1305 East-West Highway, 9th Floor
SSMC4, Silver Spring, MDJanuary 1990 - April 1993
6001 Executive Blvd., 2nd & 3rd Floors
WSC1 - Rockville, MDFebruary 1983 - January 1990
11400 Rockville Pike, 6th Floor
Rockwall Building, Rockville, MDSeptember 1979 - February 1983
3300 Whitehaven Parkway, N.W.
Page Building, Washington, D.C.
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