• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    1·
    11 days ago

    The new US Embassy to the UK, completed in 2017, is a roughly cubically-shaped glass box covered on three sides with a semi-transparent textured Teflon “envelope” that aids in temperature regulation. Situated in a landscaped compound on the Thames between the Battersea Power Station and MI6’s famous Vauxhall headquarters, it’s one of the most distinctive recent structures on that part of London’s South Bank.

    • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
      1·
      11 days ago

      Deigned by the Philadelphia architectural firm KieranTimberlake*, the chancery building incorporates a number of sustainable design elements, and has been generally well received (international politics aside) by staff and local residents. It replaced a mid-century modern structure (by Eero Saarinen, now being redeveloped as a hotel) in the more traditionally fancypants Grosvenor Square neighborhood.

      • Coincidentally, also the designer of Penn’s Levine Hall, where I once had my office.
      • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
        3·
        11 days ago

        Aside: Although the new embassy, which had been in the works for years, opened during the first Trump administration, he disliked the building so much that he refused to attend its official opening. Presumably not enough gold-leaf.