US unveils planet-hugging London embassy The US has unveiled the design of its new embassy in London - a "carbon neutral" glass cube described as a manifestation of the "core beliefs of our democracy - transparency, openness, and equality". The proposed US London embassy Philadelphia architects KieranTimberlake are at the helm of the £650m project, destined to …
..so long as the UK govt has a realistic chance of getting the same deal in reverse, I don't have a problem. After all, the idea of an embassy is that the ground space it occupies is the sovereign territory of the country it belongs to. Air Force One is a mobile example of this.. once on board, you're on American soil.
Their democracy is nowadays more like a people's democratic republic's, but hey, at least they're transparently and openly attacking entire countries where people as much as look somewhat like a bunch of people flying planes into buildings. Very symbolic.
And we simply follow them on vapid promises and false pretenses. Fool me once.... While at it, that diplocube somewhat looks like a die. Will they or won't they? They'll be thinking that, of us.
I believe the diplocube is reference to shape of said building being discussed in the article. I would say that said structure does look like it is designed with symmetry in mind. And of course a definition of symmetry is (not bothering with a dictionary at the moment) both sides equal from a dividing point or line. So hence a cube. And since it houses an embassy which usually houses diplomats, we have a very nice pet name of diplocube.
/rant
is a diplocube? Is this some attempt to make a cube sound sexy by building it out of beams and sticking a glass box on the outside? Maybe they have found a source of diplodocus remains and are grinding them up to produce some fantastic new building material?
The solar gain on this thing will be horrendous, thus ensuring that several megawatts of cooling is required and floods the building when the icecap melts. Bet they won't want to pay VAT on their energy bills either.
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There's no VAT on new build anyway, only on rebuild / refurbishment. This is why perfectly servicable, well built and attractive old buildings are knocked down and replaced with steel 'n glass pig's ears designed by ego-wanking architects.
The septics are right here, they shouldn't be charged VAT and unless there's a change in the VAT rules between now and 2013, they won't be. Presumably the point they were actually trying to make is that they'd quite like to stay where they are, but refurbishing and extending the existing site *would* attract VAT, so they're moving to a new building to avoid this.
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I'd love to be the first to bring this down; why do they need a building so secure and "electronically impenetrable" in a 'friendly' state?
God, how I wish the pond was larger.
Oh, and before any yanks try to tell me how you saved Europe in WW1 and WW2 just think about why you took so long to get involved: talk about waiting to see if the buttered side landed up or down.
It is outside the congestion charge region. That was one of the reasons (non-officially, naturally) why they want to move. Also, the increasingly upset neighbours in Mayfair (because of the way Grosvenor Square now looks and the dangers it represents to buildings around the area should a bomb go off) are also cited as a reason.
...and just one final point: would you (USA) please stop making reference to a "special", "cherished" or other "relationship", "partnership", etc., etc. The weirdness since the Obama election vis-a-vis the journalists is a case of tail-wags-dog and is just getting extremely tedious now. So if you wouldn't mind, let's just stop the navel-gazing.
The only people AFAIK who refer to any kind of "special relationship" are the Brits, who imagine that the US gives a tinker's cuss about them if it doesn't align with their foreign policy.
ISTR the previous US ambassador explicitly forbade his staff from using the phrase, as well.
Looks like a Borg cube to me.
Prepare to be assimilated!
I heard the Ambassador talking about this on the radio last night, when he said open spaces and no big security walls etc, I (stupidly) assumed a nice landscaped area. Looks like a combo of a moat and a big feck-off ditch.
Security by old fashioned methods eh??
but the more pertinent comparison is with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, which was going to move from it's current gothic-y 'Spires' building and into a new one it was going to build that was nick-named 'the glass house' (it was going to envelope an existing church as well, which would have been _interesting_). Apart from not being able to afford the move, they eventually decided it was just a bad idea.
Diplocube is truly the only word for this. It's not a bad building, but it doesn't seem like an embassy. But 7 years to build? Is that how long it takes to get anything done in London?
What the... oh wait, I get it. Equality as in All Animals Are Equal But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others. Sort of like War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength kind of thing. Like calling the police the Ministry of Love and the propaganda department the Ministry of Truth. That's OK, I see it now.
I don't think i'd be accepting a check from good o'le uncle sam. He doesn't seem to have any money in the bank to buy anything.
I do appreciate them outing what they are blowing our money on. The last announcement the IRS made about their needing of a new slew of shotguns reminded me that I also needed a new one.
The IRS wouldn't want me bringing a pistol to a shotgun battle now would they? Gotta have a fair fight!
The US has unveiled the design of its new embassy in London - a "carbon neutral" glass cube described as a manifestation of the "core beliefs of our democracy - transparency, openness, and equality".
In other news: The new labour headquarters architects plans have ben revealed, "We wanted a tall impregnable black tower with a big freaking fiery eye on top and a cage for my flying monkeys" said Mandelson
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I tell you what really strikes me about this design: The 10-foot high concrete walls around the sides, disguised as split-level gardens and ponds. Very similar to GCHQ's boundary. Very effective at stopping any kind of vehicle (eg. explosive-laden lorries trying to ram the embassy) and protestors.
The entry building at the bottom is also obviously to physically separate the security entrance and the embassy building.
A stand-alone embassy, a good distance from other buildings, also obviously has security benefits. I would suggest that the intention to abandon Grosvenor Square is much more to do with security than office space.
Would be all that glass. Making it triple glazed would be very eco-friendly. However if one were to (for example) Make a large metal plate with a lot of holes in and loosely screw a lot of bolts into it, liberally apply some plastic explosive to the back it would (in principle) be possible to carry it under a helicopter to said building before pressing the button.
The mother of all Claymore mines.
No doubt they will install the SAM battery on the roof for such an event. Of course they could just put the Ambassador's office in the basement, but that would not be very ambassadorial.
Mines the one with the Thomas Harris "Black Sunday" in the pocket.
We Londoners can finally have all of Grosvenor Square back without all the chicanes and armed police in a very nice part of Mayfair.
How much the American Ambassador will like being out in the sticks is anyone's guess, but at least we won't have to watch American diplomatic cars drive into the heart of the West End Congestion-Charge free. I hope our Ambassador in Washington DC is currently withholding some local city tax, to give them a taste of civil disobedience.
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