BUILDING BUREAU INC

Financials

From the e-filed returns the IRS publishes as XML (latest three processing years; amended returns replace the original). PDF copies at the IRS.

Officers, directors and key employees

As listed on the 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2024, highest compensation first.

Address and contacts

Address (IRS master file)

131 CONTINENTAL DR STE 305, NEWARK, DE 19713-4324

Signed the 990-EZ

Greg Survant, Operations

Phone

(859) 229-0171

Website

https://buildingbureau.org

Mission

Building Bureau's mission is to further the social impact of public organizations and civic institutions through architecture, while promoting stewardship of the built environment through research and educational programs. It accomplishes this through three program services: 1) Pro-bono or "low-bono" discounted design, planning, and fundraising services for nonprofit organizations, 2) Traditional market-rate architectural services for nonprofit organizations with project funding, and 3) Research, education, and outreach.

Program accomplishments

• 1) Pro-bono or "low-bono" discounted design, planning, and fundraising services for nonprofit organizations 1A) Building Bureau (BB) continued providing construction administration services to the Bethany Mission Society for the Bethany Home for Children, a four-story orphanage for 100 children in southern India that was completed in August of 2024. 1B) BB also continued to provide pro bono architectural services to Tiger Track Nepal for the ecolodge and guest cottages under construction in Nepal. Home to a Community-Based Anti-Poaching Unit (CBAPU), the small complex is located just outside of Bardiya National Park, a conservation area in Nepal's lowland Terai region that is home to many endangered species of wildlife. 1C) For Mane Dada Organic in Nepal, Building Bureau continued to support the construction of a sustainable cottage in the Kavre Earth Village through site visits and construction administration services. 1D) For Tsering's Fund, a Montana-based nonprofit, Building Bureau continued to provide discounted design services for the Helambu Gaunpalika Hospital, a ten-bed medical facility in rural Nepal, a district underserved by healthcare. BB produced a design presentation and physical model for a public meeting on site with local stakeholders in January of 2024. The hospital, designed for sustainable materials like locally-sourced rammed earth walls and slate tile roofing, is currently in a fundraising phase. The facility will serve a population of 18,000 without direct access to healthcare. 1E) Building Bureau provided pro bono design services for a new 2,100 square foot health clinic, the Ekuwa Health Post, sponsored by Lakpa Nurbu Sherpa and his organization NPO Nepal. Ekuwa is very remote and lacks road access. Those seeking medical care must hike three to four hours down the hill to the nearest health post below. The new clinic will serve 100 local families. BB staff presented the health post design to the community during a public meeting in May of 2024. 1F) Building Bureau took on the pro bono design of a four-story dormitory and classroom block in urban Kathmandu for the Shree Mangal Dvip School, a Tibetan Buddhist school for underprivileged youth from remote mountain regions. The project includes two stories of classrooms, including an art and music room, plus two stories of dormitory and staff rooms. It will accommodate 250 students at a time. The project is currently in the early concept design phase. 2) Traditional market-rate architectural services for nonprofit organizations with project funding 2A) Building Bureau completed architectural design services for a 1,500 square foot welcome center that serves as an entry point to the nonprofit Namchak Retreat Ranch in rural Montana and its Buddha Garden and is open to hundreds of members of the general public per year. The project, designed using low-carbon, structurally insulated straw panels that were prefabricated offsite, began construction in November of 2023 and was opened in the summer of 2024. 2B) For Namchak Retreat Ranch on the same site, BB also began architectural services for a Three-Year Retreat, a secluded compound of six buildings, totaling 26,800 square feet, devoted to monastic life. The retreat buildings are clustered into two campuses, one for women and one for men. Each building will house a small cohort of ten students plus resident teachers, for a total of sixty retreatants at a time. 3) Research, education, and outreach Building Bureau staff continued to build partnerships with Montana State University in 2024. In the spring semester of 2024, BB was invited to be the Visiting Scholar at Montana State University's School of Architecture - a research-based position that focused on "construction ecologies" - the complex web of building supply chains from the extraction of raw resources, through production processes, to their use as architectural products in buildings - specifically in the context of the mountain west. Graduate students in the BB studio studied metals and minerals, among other raw materials mined in Montana, and visited Butte, a historic copper mining town that continues to mine silver and molybdenum. The studio produced a building-specific periodic table charting each element's use in architecture, physical mockups and material experiments in earth and clay, and a large assemblies model with a range of conventional and alternative construction materials. This research culminated in a two-month long exhibition at the Imagine Butte Resource Center in historic Uptown Butte, Montana titled Construction Ecologies and co-sponsored by the MSU School of Architecture. BB also held a natural paint workshop in the gallery, co-led by MSU grad students Mo Espinoza Chaney and Stephanie Weddle, and a public gallery conversation with speakers including architect Lotus Grenier of Thruline Partners. The research into the toxic effects of lead paint and the continued health risks associated with contemporary paints led BB to explore tempura paints made with entirely organic materials like eggs, carrots, beets, among other ingredients. For the exhibition, BB handmade a natural, mustard-hued paint for the gallery walls using 250 donated eggs and 30 pounds of carrots. Building Bureau presented this materials research at Montana State University's second annual Minds on Mountains conference in April and at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) international conference in Querétaro, Mexico in June. BB also presented its Nepal work at the African Urbanisms conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in October. BB developed a portion of its website to host this materials research. In the fall of 2024, Building Bureau was a partner on an Outreach & Engagement Seed Funding Grant from Montana State University for a community-engaged design process with the National Affordable Housing Network and the Imagine Butte Resource Center stakeholders to envision the future of the Phoenix Building, a historic six-story structure in Uptown Butte, Montana. The team made three formal site visits with undergraduate students and met with Phoenix stakeholders through a community-engaged design process.
  Expenses $34,258 · grants $591
• 2) Architectural services for nonprofit organizations with project funding | 2A) Building Bureau continued from 2022 construction administration services for the Bodhi House (previously named the Summer Immersion Program), an 18,000 square foot 36-bed dormitory for the Tibetan Buddhist organization Namchak Retreat Ranch located in rural Western Montana. The facility was opened to the public in July of 2023 and officially dedicated in October of the same year by honorary guests from Tibet and Nepal Buddhist community including Rabjam Rinpoche. Several small retreats and ceremonies have occurred in the building since its opening, directly serving an estimated 200-300 individuals - many of them from marginalized backgrounds - just in the last half of 2023 alone. The building is heated and cooled using on-site geothermal energy and electricity use is supplemented by rooftop solar panels. A greywater reclamation system recycles water from showers and sinks for use in toilets, thus reducing waste of water in a dry climate. Rainwater harvesting from the roof provides irrigation for exterior plantings, further reducing water demand in a Montana ecosystem sensitive to drought and wildfire. 2B) Building Bureau also provided architectural design services for a 1,500 square foot welcome center on the Ranch for the same Tibetan Buddhist partner. The project, designed using structurally insulated straw bale panels that were prefabricated offsite, began construction in November of 2023 and will be completed in the summer of 2024. The use of organic material as a construction material substantially reduces the carbon footprint of the project; rooftop solar panels will provide an on-site energy source. Once open to the public in 2024, the building will serve as an entry point to the Namchak Retreat Ranch and its Buddha Garden and serve hundreds of members of the general public per year. 2C) A third project in this program category is the Helambu Gaunpalika Hospital, a ten-bed medical facility in rural Nepal, a district underserved by healthcare. Building Bureau provided discounted design services to the project donor, Tsering's Fund based in Montana, arranged a feasibility study and geotechnical analysis through its local partners in Kathmandu, and made two visits in 2023 to the site in Nepal to support the project. The organization produced a design presentation and physical model for a public meeting on site with local stakeholders (in January of 2024). The hospital, designed for sustainable materials like locally-sourced rammed earth walls and slate tile roofing, is currently in a fundraising phase. If completed, it would serve a population of 18,000 people not currently supported by a hospital. 2D) A masterplan for the Rising Hope Christian Center in Bor, South Sudan is a fifth project Building Bureau took on in this program category in 2023. BB offered heavily discounted design services to US-based Africa Sunrise Communities for a 2-hectare master plan of the project, consisting of a 500-student boarding school with both classrooms and accommodation, a large dining hall and gathering space, a administrative office and staff housing block, a public clinic, and a 250-seat chapel. The project, designed around a common recreation area and garden, features compressed earth block walls using local soils. The project is currently in a fundraising phase. Once completed, it is intended to directly serve 500 schoolchildren and approximately 40 staff members and indirectly serve countless more in the community of Bor, South Sudan.
  Expenses $93,616
• 3) Research, education, and outreach | Building Bureau staff built partnerships with Montana State University's School of Architecture in 2023, leading undergraduate design studios focused on Montana's veteran population and the sustainability of earth construction, respectively. Building Bureau also gave a three-day workshop in Puebla, Mexico for the architecture faculty of the Tecnológico de Monterrey university system, with a focus on thermal comfort, embodied carbon, and architectural craft and concluding with a hands on workshop in traditional cob (clay and straw) construction techniques. In September 2023, Building Bureau organized, with partner Dr. Yutaka Sho of Syracuse University, a panel discussion titled "Unmaking Capital: Alternative Practices in the Global South" for the Architecture Lobby's ABC School 2023. The virtual discussion included speakers from Mexico, Rwanda, Botswana, Kenya, and Japan with a focus on material practices and architectural design outside the United States and Europe.
  Expenses $7,635

What it must file and when

IRS records say it files Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N. Its accounting year ends in December, so each return is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after that.

IRS record

EIN

88-0828594

Tax-exempt status

501(c)(3): Charitable, religious, educational or scientific organization

Foundation status

Publicly supported organization (509(a)(2))

Donations deductible (Pub 78)

Public charity, 50% deduction limit

Exempt since

2023

Accounting year ends

December

Files

Form 990 or 990-EZ

Category (NTEE)

Public and societal benefit (W02)

Assets (IRS master file)

$89,961

Income (IRS master file)

$163,810

Filing history

990-N: the IRS bulk file holds only the latest e-Postcard per organization; earlier years come from archived copies of that file since 2020 and can have gaps (the IRS e-Postcard search lists every one). 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, 990-T: every e-filed return in the IRS e-file index since 2019; XML for the latest three processing years, amounts from the IRS Statistics of Income extracts before that. PDF copies and determination letters at the IRS (search EIN 88-0828594).

Questions about BUILDING BUREAU INC

What is the EIN of BUILDING BUREAU INC?

The employer identification number (EIN) of BUILDING BUREAU INC is 88-0828594.

Is BUILDING BUREAU INC tax-exempt?

Yes. The IRS lists it as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) since 2023.

Are donations to BUILDING BUREAU INC tax-deductible?

Yes. It is listed in IRS Publication 78 (Public charity, 50% deduction limit).

Which annual return does BUILDING BUREAU INC file?

Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N.

When is the next return of BUILDING BUREAU INC due?

The return for tax year 2025 (the year ending December 31, 2025) is due May 15, 2026. Form 8868 extends it by six months; the 990-N cannot be extended.

When did BUILDING BUREAU INC last file with the IRS?

The latest return in the IRS public files is the 990-EZ for the year ended December 2024.

Who are the officers and directors of BUILDING BUREAU INC?

The 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2024 lists 5 people; 2 received compensation from the organization, the highest $25,235 (Anna Leshnick, Founder and Sr Designer).

How much revenue does BUILDING BUREAU INC have?

On its 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2024 it reported revenue of $163,810, expenses of $141,026 and total assets of $89,961 at year end.

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