http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7038550.ece
QuoteThe United States has unveiled plans for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London — the most expensive it has ever built.
The proposals were met with relief from both the present embassy's Mayfair neighbours and the residents and developers of the Battersea wasteland where the vast crystalline cube, surrounded by a moat, will be built.
.....
QuoteThe new embassy, on a former industrial site behind Battersea power station known for its gay clubs
that explains the moat. That'll keep Mart from tackling the Marine guards.
I love the
Quotesurrounded by a moat
line in a piece that notes later that the "moat" will only
Quoteseparate the building from the main road
(confirmed by their own drawing).
The Times would lose cred if it had any. Alas, how the Mighty Have Fallen.
Moving from Grosvenor Sq to Battersea? WTF? The Oslo embassy is moving, no longer will it be neighbour to the royal palace and is moving out to the suburbs. Same with the London embassy. :weep:
Quote from: Viking on February 24, 2010, 11:16:32 PM
Moving from Grosvenor Sq to Battersea? WTF? The Oslo embassy is moving, no longer will it be neighbour to the royal palace and is moving out to the suburbs. Same with the London embassy. :weep:
In Berlin they moved to the very center of the city, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Doesn't seem to fit with their security strategy really.
Quote from: Zanza on February 25, 2010, 12:53:57 AM
Quote from: Viking on February 24, 2010, 11:16:32 PM
Moving from Grosvenor Sq to Battersea? WTF? The Oslo embassy is moving, no longer will it be neighbour to the royal palace and is moving out to the suburbs. Same with the London embassy. :weep:
In Berlin they moved to the very center of the city, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Doesn't seem to fit with their security strategy really.
there the plan is to take out berlin in the off-chance that terrorists should strike teh embassy there with a nuke or dirty bomb. :p
Quote from: Zanza on February 25, 2010, 12:53:57 AM
Quote from: Viking on February 24, 2010, 11:16:32 PM
Moving from Grosvenor Sq to Battersea? WTF? The Oslo embassy is moving, no longer will it be neighbour to the royal palace and is moving out to the suburbs. Same with the London embassy. :weep:
In Berlin they moved to the very center of the city, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Doesn't seem to fit with their security strategy really.
meh everybody that is anybody moved into the potsdamer platz area in the old no-mans-land of the berlin wall
The Pariser Platz where the American and French embassies are is much more exclusive than the pedestrian Potsdamer Platz. It's really the best adress in all of Berlin.
You'd think with modern communications, embassies, especially those with friendly, stable countries, could just rent an office somewhere.
And the countries where an embassy would need to be a modern fortress, probably aren't worth having an embassy in anyway.
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 25, 2010, 01:55:11 AM
You'd think with modern communications, embassies, especially those with friendly, stable countries, could just rent an office somewhere.
And the countries where an embassy would need to be a modern fortress, probably aren't worth having an embassy in anyway.
Office buildings containing Danish and Norwegian embassies have been burned by raging mooselimb mobs
And Swedish! Embassies that is, not mobs.
Quote from: Viking on February 25, 2010, 02:09:42 AM
Quote from: Tonitrus on February 25, 2010, 01:55:11 AM
You'd think with modern communications, embassies, especially those with friendly, stable countries, could just rent an office somewhere.
And the countries where an embassy would need to be a modern fortress, probably aren't worth having an embassy in anyway.
Office buildings containing Danish and Norwegian embassies have been burned by raging mooselimb mobs
Then they must not have been worth having.
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
#2 is the US embassy in Cuba just because it looks so out of place & is full of irony.
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
#2 is the US embassy in Cuba just because it looks so out of place & is full of irony.
You mean the Russian embassy in Havana, don't you?
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brokenatlas.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fbridgman-russian-emb.jpg&hash=5aa2dc53b2606c8eecd79f539dbe88f0b907a3da)
I don't see the trebuchet in the pic. :(
A $1 billion embassy, nice, which will cost at least twice or three times that when done, of course. <_<
With e-mail and teleconferencing you don't even need embassies. Everyone can sit in a bunker in DC.
Quote from: The Brain on February 25, 2010, 10:45:07 AM
With e-mail and teleconferencing you don't even need embassies. Everyone can sit in a bunker in DC.
This should be required for all federal contractors. Would really improve the traffic situation around here.
Quote from: grumbler on February 25, 2010, 08:39:25 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
#2 is the US embassy in Cuba just because it looks so out of place & is full of irony.
You mean the Russian embassy in Havana, don't you?
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brokenatlas.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fbridgman-russian-emb.jpg&hash=5aa2dc53b2606c8eecd79f539dbe88f0b907a3da)
Alright, that one isn't much better.
But the US embassy isn't so weird, it is just out of place. A modern glass wall building in seasalt
délavé color neighborhoor.
Quote from: Zanza on February 25, 2010, 12:53:57 AM
Quote from: Viking on February 24, 2010, 11:16:32 PM
Moving from Grosvenor Sq to Battersea? WTF? The Oslo embassy is moving, no longer will it be neighbour to the royal palace and is moving out to the suburbs. Same with the London embassy. :weep:
In Berlin they moved to the very center of the city, right next to the Brandenburg Gate. Doesn't seem to fit with their security strategy really.
In Bratislava they have a city centre embassy.
Its HORRIBLE.
You have the pretty old town with a few jolly foreign flags sticking out of top floor offices for various other embassies and there is the US embassy with its big razor wire fence and airlockesque gate.
Keep to the burbs.
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
#2 is the US embassy in Cuba just because it looks so out of place & is full of irony.
Canada House? A lovely building. There's also a marvellous building across the street, also facing Trafalgar Square, that has "CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY" emblazoned high across its front.
How unfortunate the US embassy is moving to Battersea - it has awful transport links.
Quote from: lustindarkness on February 25, 2010, 10:39:37 AM
I don't see the trebuchet in the pic. :(
I lie in my thread titles. I was going to make the title vague, but decided against it.
Quote from: Warspite on February 25, 2010, 03:19:31 PM
Canada House? A lovely building. There's also a marvellous building across the street, also facing Trafalgar Square, that has "CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY" emblazoned high across its front.
IIRC, it was part travel office, part immigration office for new immigrants (who had to take CPR boats and/or CPR railway to get to the prairies).
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
:bash:
It's not an embassy! :mad:
It's a High Commission. :cool:
Quote from: Barrister on February 25, 2010, 05:17:16 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
:bash:
It's not an embassy! :mad:
It's a High Commission. :cool:
headquarters of the pot party? :unsure:
Quote from: Warspite on February 25, 2010, 03:19:31 PM
How unfortunate the US embassy is moving to Battersea - it has awful transport links.
It should help cut down on the protesters outside, though...
The Embassy won't be ready until they station some Sherwood Archers in it.
I would say it is more the Nine Elms area rather than Battersea; it is something of a post-industrial wasteland, diplomats from Detroit (if there is such a thing) will feel at home :cool:
Incidentally, the Grosvenor Square site will be sold to some Qatari firm or another for "more than $1bn". So the move should be more or less neutral as regards cost.
Quote from: Barrister on February 25, 2010, 05:17:16 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on February 25, 2010, 07:37:32 AM
The Canadian embassy in London is the coolest embassy in the world.
:bash:
It's not an embassy! :mad:
It's a High Commission. :cool:
True & it only houses half the staff or something.
It's still a cool building.
This reminds me of the last American embassy. A young charming President takes over and a new Embassy design is chosen for London. The design's characterised by walls of glass and symbolises the open and democratic nature of America.
Last time the President was killed and the embassy was completed just in time for massive anti-Vietnam protests, requiring the glass walls to be hidden behind far more substantial concrete walls for forty years :(
Edit: Oh and you better get rid of that hideous eagle:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bdonline.co.uk%2FPictures%2F468xAny%2Fy%2Fm%2Fh%2Frex_US_embassy_664167_ready.jpg&hash=299a6a4a73304ebc7782363714eae82939ecb3d2)
:bleeding:
Quote from: Sheilbh on February 26, 2010, 11:18:29 PM
Last time the President was killed and the embassy was completed just in time for massive anti-Vietnam protests, requiring the glass walls to be hidden behind far more substantial concrete walls for forty years :(
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:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F_WvxoYIjsa6Q%2FSOdJSYmB0RI%2FAAAAAAAABPU%2FcZ8-SdPikcU%2Fs400%2FUS_Embassy%25252C_London.jpg&hash=4007706ab1dce35f2fcad28a076e4d9c0b368b5d)
To what "concrete walls" that hid the glass walls do you refer? When were they installed.
Quote from: Sheilbh on February 26, 2010, 11:18:29 PM
Edit: Oh and you better get rid of that hideous eagle:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bdonline.co.uk%2FPictures%2F468xAny%2Fy%2Fm%2Fh%2Frex_US_embassy_664167_ready.jpg&hash=299a6a4a73304ebc7782363714eae82939ecb3d2)
:bleeding:
Bad, but not as bad as the solder smear on the wall of the UK's embassy in Brussels (pic on the right):
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.dailymail.co.uk%2Fi%2Fpix%2F2007%2F09_03%2FBrusBerlinR_468x364.jpg&hash=bf66fcf916f195615b22b1a941cf021e6ec3c263)
:bleeding:
Looks like horizontal wood paneling from the 70's.
Quote from: Ed Anger on February 27, 2010, 04:35:57 PM
Looks like horizontal wood paneling from the 70's.
They saw it on sale at Ikea.
Quote from: grumbler on February 27, 2010, 04:31:03 PM
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 :mmm:
Quote from: Sheilbh on February 27, 2010, 07:57:09 PM
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.
I quite like the look of the embassy on Grosvenor Square. :blush:
Quote from: Warspite on February 27, 2010, 09:09:51 PM
I quite like the look of the embassy on Grosvenor Square. :blush:
But did you think it fit into that neighborhood?
I worked here:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalsecurity.org%2Fmilitary%2Ffacility%2Fimages%2Flondon-hq2.jpg&hash=1e4e9552e2e4ceef447e72f22bb62e364702cc5d)
This was the far side of the square:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorfinanceeurope.com%2Fimages%2FMarriottHotel.jpg&hash=28e11cda79f7936fd93dfd9d6ac1cfffcb155d84)
I posted the embassy picture above.
Quote from: grumbler on February 27, 2010, 04:34:10 PMBad, but not as bad as the solder smear on the wall of the UK's embassy in Brussels (pic on the right):
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.dailymail.co.uk%2Fi%2Fpix%2F2007%2F09_03%2FBrusBerlinR_468x364.jpg&hash=bf66fcf916f195615b22b1a941cf021e6ec3c263)
:bleeding:
The pic on the right is in Berlin, not Brussels. Unless they have built the same building twice. :unsure:
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 :cool:
The new place will be remote from other countries embassies and the mainstream of London social life; does that matter nowadays though?
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on February 28, 2010, 02:39:27 AM
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?
:huh: