Eero Saarinen's striking 1959 chancery—one of three buildings in Europe by the architect—now houses offices, a multifunction event space, cafe, and restaurants thanks to Atelier Oslo and Lundhagem.
When the United States’ London embassy moves across town from Mayfair to Nine Elms in 2017, it will leave behind a monumental home: the Eero Saarinen–designed Chancery Building.
The department's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations intends to release a how-to handbook by July. The State Dept. is pushing ahead with plans to embrace “design excellence” in its embassy construction program, using some elements for a new U.S. embassy in London, now in design, and fleshing out details through a series of documents that will spell out specific Design Excellence program guidelines. Photo: U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations / Timothy Hursley The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations used some Design Excellence elements as it planned and built an embassy in Beijing that was completed
Given the complex forces connecting China and the United States, the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s San Francisco office, had to negotiate difficult political, cultural, and architectural terrain.