The United States’ British embassy will be moving in London. To a cube. A very, very cool looking cube:
Besides being cool looking this baby comes in at one billion dollars. That’s right, with a ‘b.’ The US Ambassador to Britain Louis Susman maintains that the current residence, the Mayfair mansion, is outdated and becoming harder to maintain, not to mention fails to meet security standards, and cites this as one of the main reasons for the upgrade.
The Telegraph reports:
Building work is due to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2017.
Adam Namm, acting director of the US government’s overseas building operations, said the project would be built by a US construction firm.
But he said it was likely that work would be sub-contracted to British companies.
He said the budget for the project was among the most expensive taken on to build a new embassy, alongside recent developments in Baghdad and Islamabad.
Despite the need for new digs, it’s virtually certain that the price tag attached to the cube embassy is going to draw fire for excessive spending in a time of economic recession.
Some specs: Twelve stories high, houses 1,000 staffers, uses landscape features as security, and will not have a wall or fences.