US Embassy Exhibition @ New London Architecture

By · February 25, 2010 at 10:23 am · No comments · Arts and Events · Report an error ·

Resistance is futile. After hearing that architectural models of the Borg cube future US Embassy and the runner-up designs are on show at NLA, we simply had to pop by. Seeing the four options side-by-side, we have to admit that the winning KieranTimberlake cube is pretty powerful (although it’s best side is perhaps not the one pictured). The view is reinforced when you inspect the high-resolution images on the surrounding walls. The bubble wrap façade looks playfully inventive up close, especially when reflected in the crescent lake. Yah, sucks to what you think. We’re backing this one as a truly fresh piece of London architecture.

The three also-rans are not without merit. The design by Morphosis Architects is particularly accomplished, with curvy, sinuous forms in both building and landscape that mirror the twisting Thames and the torturous bureaucracies of immigration procedure. Richard Meier’s distinctive slab design resembles a giant wing flap or electric heater from certain angles. Finally, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners’ glass wedge looks the most Londony of the designs, recalling the nearby Park Plaza hotel on Westminster Bridge roundabout or a transverse section through the Gherkin. From above, as the model reveals, it looks a little like the Pentagon, consolidated into just three sides.

The US Embassy exhibition runs at New London Architecture (26 Store Street – just off Tottenham Court Road) until 20 March. Entry is free.

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  • http://www.blowstar.blogspot.com JohnnyFox

    It’s a very interesting echo of the ‘More London’ site where the at-the-time controversial motorcycle headlamp of the Mayor’s office on the river bank is hedged in by much more mundane but also glassy structures. The Ice Cube gets my vote though.

    What I think’s also curious is what they will do with the red-brick apartment buildings which currently block the sweeping view of the river. Compulsory purchase orders? Or the kind of mind-numbing ultra-security measures and defensive barrages which have reduced their existing Grosvenor Square neighbours to nervous wrecks?

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