Washington’s billion-dollar ‘sugar cube’ in London is the costliest embassy ever built

Costing US$1 billion it is the most expensive embassy ever constructed. But its designers say the new American chancery on the Thames River marks a paradigm shift in design: the US Embassy here will exude openness, while hiding all the clever ways it defends itself from attack.

After decades of building American embassies that look brutalist or bland, like obvious fortresses, the soon-to-be opened mission in London is a crystalline cube, plopped down in the middle of a public park, without visible walls.

The building does not shout, “spies work here!” or “stand back!” even though this city has been subjected to a string of terror attacks. Instead the vibe is modernist museum, that also happens to issue visas and might have a few hidden bunkers somewhere we are not saying.

Instead of blast walls, there is a perimeter pond, with recycled water waterfalls, native hammocks and deep trenches – and on the roof arrays of solar panels that will produce enough power to run the building and give some extra back to the grid.

The building sports frosted glass walkways, inspirational quotes of the US Constitution, neon sculpture, reclaimed teak benches, Cornwall granite, its own subterranean waste water treatment plant and a dozen gardens in the sky, one representing the flora of the American Midwest.

There’s also a pub, a gym, a post office and a posh Marine barracks, with millionaire views all the way to Westminster. One assumes there is a CIA station, but that was not on the tour.