$1B U.S. embassy set to open in London
New embassy will exude openness, but hide all the clever ways it can defend itself from attack.
LONDON — With a price tag of $1 billion, it is the most expensive embassy ever constructed. But its designers say the new American chancery on the Thames River marks a paradigm shift in design: the U.S. Embassy here will exude openness, while hiding all the clever ways it defends itself from attack.
After decades of building American embassies that look brutalist or bland, like obvious fortresses, the soon-to-be opened chancery in London is a crystalline cube, plopped in the middle of a park, without visible walls.
The building does not shout, “Spies work here!” or “Stand back!” even though this city has been subjected to a string of terror attacks. Instead the vibe is modernist museum that also happens to issue visas and might have a few hidden bunkers somewhere that we are not revealing.
Instead of blast walls, there is a perimeter pond, with recycled water waterfalls, native hammocks and deep trenches — and on the roof, arrays of solar panels that will produce enough juice to run the building and give the extra watts back to the grid.
The building sports frosted glass walkways, inspirational quotes from the Constitution, neon sculpture, reclaimed teak benches, Cornwall granite, its own subterranean wastewater treatment plant and a dozen gardens in the sky, one representing the flora of the American Midwest.
There’s also a pub, a gym, a post office and a posh Marine barracks, with millionaire views all the way to Westminster for the hardworking 19-year-old lance corporals. One assumes there is a CIA station, but that was not on the tour.
The press were given a first look inside Wednesday — the embassy will open its doors on Jan. 16, 2018 — and the early word from the British media was mostly positive.
The Evening Standard called the interiors “stunning” and the Daily Mail said rather than a slick and hard-edged high rise, the embassy exterior had a “soft and pillowy” feel — because of the plastic polymer veils that drape three sides of the building, enhancing its energy efficiency.
This is a far cry from earlier critiques.
Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, said that the city expected “something a little bit more exciting.”