UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS, New York, New York, i UNITED STATES MISSION THE TO UNITED NATIONS STATES UNITED UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS New York, New York New York, New York New York, New The U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, New York, was designed and constructed under the U.S. General Services U.S. General Services Administration Administration’s Design Excellence Program, Public Buildings Service an initiative to create and preserve outstanding Office of the Chief Architect public buildings that will be used and enjoyed Design Excellence now and by future generations of Americans. 1800 F Street NW Washington, DC 20405 April 2013 202-501-1888 U.S. General Services Administration UNITED STATES MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS, New York, New York, 6, A Legacy of Excellence, 10, The Permanent Mission, 12, Design Inspiration, 17, Complementing the United Nations, 18, Secure and Welcoming, 24, The Architects and the Artist, 28, The Design and Construction Team, 30, U.S. General Services Administration and the Design Excellence Program, 2 3 4 5 A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE, Responsible for conducting America’s taste of my countrymen, to increase their affairs abroad since 1789, the United States reputation, to reconcile them to the rest of Department of State is the oldest executive the world, and procure them its praise.” department of the federal government. Its first diplomats asserted American The State Department has realized Jefferson’s independence; their successors secured the vision consistently. One of its first offices nation’s geopolitical position. Although was designed by James Hoban, the architect the State Department has assumed many of the White House. Later, in 1875, it temporary responsibilities, ranging from would move into a new headquarters—the minting money to taking the census, State, War, and Navy Building. Overseen throughout its history the department has by Supervising Architect of the Treasury served as the President’s primary adviser Alfred B. Mullett, the Second Empire–style and implementer of foreign policy. building was the largest office in the nation’s capital and, demonstrating design’s role in The State Department carries out its technological innovation, one of the first in diplomatic duties in a variety of facilities, the world to have a telephony infrastructure. most recognizably in embassies and With the launch of the U. S. embassy consulates in foreign capitals and other program in 1926, the State Department important global cities. These buildings hired outstanding modernists to express enjoy a tradition of high quality. Thomas American freedom in architectural form; Jefferson argued that the pursuit of they included some of the 20th century’s architectural achievement was vital best known practitioners, such as Gordon to the American experiment, writing Bunshaft, Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra, “Design activity and political thought and Eero Saarinen. In one sign of these are indivisible.” In addition to expressing buildings’ functionality and symbolic value, democratic values, America’s inaugural Edward Durell Stone’s embassy in New Secretary of State and third President Delhi, India, convinced Jacqueline Kennedy claimed that architecture plays a role in to select that architect to design the Kennedy foreign affairs, its objective “to improve the Center for the Performing Arts. 6 7 8 9 THE PERMANENT MISSION, While it is similar in purpose to an specific to the United Nations. The central embassy or consulate, a diplomatic facility reinforced-concrete office building reached that serves the United Nations is called 12 stories, and it was further distinguished a permanent mission, and America’s by an exterior shade screen of attenuated appointed ambassador to the United concrete hexagons. A gray, buff brick Nations is known officially as a permanent service tower grazed the south-facing side representative. The first United States of the main office. Permanent Mission to the United Nations opened in New York in 1961 at the Studies for replacing this building began southwest corner of 45th Street and First as early as 1992. “It was extremely Avenue, across from the more expansive overcrowded—too chockablock to suit a United Nations headquarters property. permanent representative,” says Ed Feiner, It was designed by the architecture firms former chief architect of GSA. “There was Kahn & Jacobs and Kelly & Gruzen. no security, either. It was a building that had The U.S. General Services Administration, outlived its scale and its time.” which was established to develop and operate federal civilian workplaces, hired Security has rightly been the State these two New York–based architecture Department’s longtime and paramount firms in 1956. concern. Seventy Americans were taken captive from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran The original U.S. Mission facility comprised in 1979, and in 1983 the U.S. Embassy three volumes. A small auditorium set apart in Beirut was destroyed by van explosion. the main office building from neighboring The August 1998 car bombings in Kenya offices and apartment houses to the west. and Tanzania, which killed 224 people Events like press briefings and diplomatic including 43 State Department employees, ceremonies took place in the low-rise prompted department officials to revise auditorium, while in the adjacent main and enhance overall building security office, the State Department conducted standards. Upon release of a report by administrative and diplomatic work the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel, 10 the State Department started a large-scale private-sector peers mentor the winning program of new construction, office moves, project team through schematic design and upgrades to bring facilities in line with phases. Their constructive critique has new ideas about safety. yielded numerous solutions to challenging conditions, as well as award-winning During this period of scrutiny and tight- buildings for GSA. ening of security standards, replacing the U.S. Mission entered concrete planning. David Childs, the Skidmore, Owings & GSA would once again take responsibility Merrill architect widely known for his work for developing the New York facility. on Time Warner Center and One World In order to ensure that the new building Trade Center, participated in design reviews. incorporated higher security without “There really was no precedent for this compromising the State Department’s building,” he says of accommodating the historically high standards of quality, GSA U.S. Mission’s unique criteria. Or, as would undertake the project through its Charles Gwathmey stated in a 2002 inter- acclaimed Design Excellence Program. view, “All the new security requirements that we had to deal with provoked us to Founded in 1994, the Design Excellence ask, What really is an office building?” Program oversees an innovative, two-stage selection process that regularly attracts Gwathmey founded the New York–based respected and emerging American architects architecture firm Gwathmey Siegel & to apply for GSA work. The Design Associates Architects with fellow architect Excellence Program also makes sure that a Robert Siegel in 1968. From a submission private-sector design expert—a member of pool that included more than 30 of the its National Registry of Peer Professionals— best design firms in America, Gwathmey advises the jury convened from within Siegel was selected to design the U.S. GSA and the tenant agency to select the Mission in 1998. Gwathmey passed most technically qualified design team. away a year prior to the new building’s After procurement takes place, three completion in 2010. 11 DESIGN INSPIRATION, Six years prior to winning the commission The soaring Secretariat, swooping General to design the U.S. Mission, Gwathmey Assembly, and pragmatic Conference Siegel had completed a building within Building, each expressing its own function dense, historically sensitive conditions discretely, immediately captured people’s similar to its new project. To expand the imaginations. It symbolized achieving world Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the peace through rationalism and transparency. architect created a slim 10-story tower that provides a subtle background for Frank The famous building complex also Lloyd Wright’s gallery building and its captivated the architects who were William Wesley Peters–designed annex. designing the buildings surrounding the United Nations grounds. Many tried For the U.S. Mission, Gwathmey Siegel to achieve a dialogue with it. In 1963 sought more equivalence with the nearby Wallace K. Harrison, the New York United Nations headquarters. “The real architect who served as the master planner inspiration was the U.N. itself,” says Peter of the United Nations, broke ground on Ogman, who served as project architect 860/870 United Nations Plaza; the design’s on the U.S. Mission for the firm. While two broad apartment towers and six- responding successfully to the U.S. story base, finished in darkly tinted glass, Department of State’s programmatic were intended to emphasize the lightness requirements, Gwathmey Siegel challenged of Corbusier and Niemeyer’s design. In itself to create an iconic building that another example, the United Nations’ could stand proudly with the landmark configuration of volumes was reflected in across the avenue. the three-part composition of the original United States Permanent Mission by Kahn The United Nations headquarters design & Jacobs and Kelly & Gruzen. And the was selected from 50 proposals, and