Designs Unveiled For One Of The Most Expensive Embassies Ever Built
Source: http://www.building.co.uk
#embassy #usa #uk #london #record #construction
The US Government has unveiled more detailed plans for its new embassy complex at the heart of London's Nine Elms regeneration area. The scheme was awarded outline planning consent in 2010 and the new plans provide detail on the proposed appearance of the buildings, site layout, landscaping and access arrangements.
Philadelphia-based architects Kieran Timberlake won the competition to build a new US Embassy in London, with a design that concentrates on environmental issues two years ago.
The victorious design, to be built in Nine Elms on the southern bank of the Thames, combines energy efficiency with improvements to the post-industrial landscape of one of London's last big undeveloped city-centre sites. The new 11-storey building, which will be able to house 1,000 staff, covers 45 thousand square meters. The north facing elevation is largely glazed, while the other three sides of the building have a distinctive outer shell made from a transparent material called ethylene tetraffluoroethylene (ETFE), with integrated photovoltaic panels to harvest solar energy. Photovoltaic panels would be installed on the roof and the main vehicle access to the site would be from Ponton Road which is currently being realigned.
The glazed box sits atop a colonnade intended to create a feeling of civic engagement and openness which has been pointedly lacking in recent US embassies and which became one of the reasons that the state department took the decision to vacate its existing building in central London's Grosvenor Square.
Three single storey entrance pavilions would be located on the perimeter of the site to control access to the main building. The scheme would provide new public open space including landscaped gardens, walkways and a large pond designed by Olin landscape architects.
A semi-circular pool protects the building on the side facing the river, which features a new road passing between the embassy and the Thames, while the building itself is slightly elevated atop a mound to avoid the possibility of ramming the structure with the car bombs which became such a favoured terrorist mode of attack in the 1990s. The pool and the grassy mound combine to create a parkland setting which, it is hoped, will both help provide a green heart for the redevelopment of this long-neglected part of the city but which also subtly protects the embassy without the creating the impression of a walled compound - which was one of the fears about the viability of this building as an anchor for the new Nine Elms.
Earlier the cost of construction of the new embassy is estimated to be about US$ 500 million, but now it doubled. With a US$ 1 billion budget the embassy is set to become one of the most expensive in the world, cheaper only than America's fortress-like outposts in Baghdad and Islamabad. The building work on one of the most expensive embassies ever built is due to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2017.
Philadelphia-based architects Kieran Timberlake won the competition to build a new US Embassy in London, with a design that concentrates on environmental issues two years ago.
The victorious design, to be built in Nine Elms on the southern bank of the Thames, combines energy efficiency with improvements to the post-industrial landscape of one of London's last big undeveloped city-centre sites. The new 11-storey building, which will be able to house 1,000 staff, covers 45 thousand square meters. The north facing elevation is largely glazed, while the other three sides of the building have a distinctive outer shell made from a transparent material called ethylene tetraffluoroethylene (ETFE), with integrated photovoltaic panels to harvest solar energy. Photovoltaic panels would be installed on the roof and the main vehicle access to the site would be from Ponton Road which is currently being realigned.
The glazed box sits atop a colonnade intended to create a feeling of civic engagement and openness which has been pointedly lacking in recent US embassies and which became one of the reasons that the state department took the decision to vacate its existing building in central London's Grosvenor Square.
Three single storey entrance pavilions would be located on the perimeter of the site to control access to the main building. The scheme would provide new public open space including landscaped gardens, walkways and a large pond designed by Olin landscape architects.
A semi-circular pool protects the building on the side facing the river, which features a new road passing between the embassy and the Thames, while the building itself is slightly elevated atop a mound to avoid the possibility of ramming the structure with the car bombs which became such a favoured terrorist mode of attack in the 1990s. The pool and the grassy mound combine to create a parkland setting which, it is hoped, will both help provide a green heart for the redevelopment of this long-neglected part of the city but which also subtly protects the embassy without the creating the impression of a walled compound - which was one of the fears about the viability of this building as an anchor for the new Nine Elms.
Earlier the cost of construction of the new embassy is estimated to be about US$ 500 million, but now it doubled. With a US$ 1 billion budget the embassy is set to become one of the most expensive in the world, cheaper only than America's fortress-like outposts in Baghdad and Islamabad. The building work on one of the most expensive embassies ever built is due to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2017.
