Berlin Embassy: Critics Not Impressed

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  07.07.08 | 11:27 AM ET

berlinembassyPhoto by snooker68 via Flickr (Creative Commons).

German architectural critics are having a field day with the new U.S. embassy in Berlin (pictured), skewering the design as “banal” and “monstrous.” It’s an unfair rap, says University of Maryland architectural historian Jane Loeffler.

Writing for Newsweek, Loeffler argues that U.S. embassy design too often provides an easy target for those keen to criticize U.S. foreign policy, particularly in cases where the buildings are walled-off compounds. But in Berlin’s case, she says, the design expresses “optimism and trust,” underscoring America’s commitment to a reunified Germany.

A slideshow accompanying the Newsweek story shows controversial U.S. embassies built since the 1950s, and gives readers a glimpse of the cool new embassy in Beijing, slated to open in August during the Olympics. Given the many potential crises that could erupt during the Games, perhaps that opening will slip by unnoticed.

Tags: Architecture, Europe, Germany, Berlin, News and Briefs

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


3 Comments for Berlin Embassy: Critics Not Impressed

Ling 07.07.08 | 2:22 PM ET

Sorry, but I have to agree with the Germans. That building does look a bit out of place. Not critiquing foreign policy. Just the building.

Eva Holland 07.07.08 | 4:07 PM ET

I’m surprised the new(ish) embassy in Canada didn’t make the slideshow - people here never get tired of talking about how it ‘ruined’ downtown Ottawa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_States_in_Ottawa

You’re right about the US embassies making easy targets, though - for one thing, in many places they’re likely to be the largest of the embassies (that’s certainly the case here) so it’s all that much harder to make them unobtrusive.

Dave 07.07.08 | 9:45 PM ET

The structure may seem out of place, but it still needs to be large enough for all the people that go through the building.  horizontal and vertical line are suppose to bring comfort and safety in a setting so I’m pretty sure that it was not meant to be obtrusive.

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