New American embassy to have moat, trebuchet

[grumbler]

Edit:  Oh and you better get rid of that hideous eagle:

Bad, but not as bad as the solder smear on the wall of the UK's embassy in Brussels (pic on the right):

[Ed Anger]

Looks like horizontal wood paneling from the 70's.

[grumbler]

Looks like horizontal wood paneling from the 70's.

They saw it on sale at Ikea.

[Sheilbh]

I used to work a coupla hundred feet from the embassy, and never saw the concrete walls that hid the glass walls (just a line of concrete planters that hid the "dry moat").  It looked like this:

That's what I mean.  Last time I went by there were the concrete planters and large mesh fences (and some chipboard walls) that hid the glass ground floor more or less entirely.

Agree on the smear in Brussels - love the look of that building generally, though

[grumbler]

That's what I mean.  Last time I went by there were the concrete planters and large mesh fences (and some chipboard walls) that hid the glass ground floor more or less entirely.

Okay.  I thought you meant "hid the glass walls" as in completely.  Yeah, the original design didn't have security much in mind, as that was a more innocent era.  The improvisations were not attractive.

Frankly, I never thought Grosvenor Square was a particularly good place for either the embassy nor the Navy headquarters.  The HQ was at least in a period building, but security was a nightmare (and since I was the security officer for that building, it was my nightmare).  The embassy looked out of place and even out of time.

The one good thing about having the HQ where it was was that we got to work in civvies.

[Warspite]

I quite like the look of the embassy on Grosvenor Square. 

[grumbler]

I quite like the look of the embassy on Grosvenor Square. 

But did you think it fit into that neighborhood?
I worked here:


This was the far side of the square:


I posted the embassy picture above.

[Zanza]

Bad, but not as bad as the solder smear on the wall of the UK's embassy in Brussels (pic on the right):

The pic on the right is in Berlin, not Brussels. Unless they have built the same building twice.

[Richard Hakluyt]

There will be slim pickings for the Embassy staff once they have relocated to Nine Elms. A good opportunity for some entrepreneurial type to open a cafe/bar/restaurant 

The new place will be remote from other countries embassies and the mainstream of London social life; does that matter nowadays though?

[C.C.R.]

The new place will be remote from other countries embassies and the mainstream of London social life; does that matter nowadays though?

A microcosm of US foreign policy?