• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    2·
    11 days ago

    Captured with the Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/8) lens, Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50, 1/50 sec), Cambo WRS-5005 camera (Shifted vertically -19mm, horizontally -10mm). Cropped to a 4x5 aspect ratio.

    The embassy’s exterior “envelope” curtain forms an interesting abstract pattern that reminds me of the sound absorbing tiles that line recording studios and anechoic chambers. This photo shows the western-facing side.

    • 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.

  • TobyBartels@mathstodon.xyz
    1·
    11 days ago

    @mattblaze@federate.social

    Ooh, if I relax my focus, I can see a unicorn!

    (I’m allowed to make this joke, because I’m an American.)

    (Also, everyone else is allowed to make jokes about the USA too, because waves around at everything.)