by jbs041910 h3 — April 21, 2010—The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently commended Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for introducing the Embassy Design and Security Act, and the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) for launching a design excellence program for diplomatic facilities.
The AIA said Sen. Kerry’s Embassy Design and Security Act, introduced on April 15, is a ground-breaking piece of legislation that for the first time recognizes the vital role building design can play in transforming America’s embassies into high-performance structures throughout the world.
The act establishes a Design Excellence program at the State Department and ensures that experts from the design, construction and security fields can advise the Department on its work. The legislation will encourage innovation in design, create a framework for testing new technologies, and provide training in high-performance building attributes.
The act would require the State Department to do a study that would consider alternative approaches to enable architects and engineers to design embassies that reflect the unique needs of a site at a foreign post and to incorporate appropriate standard design and construction components common to the building type.
The legislation comes in response to a report released July 9, 2009 by the AIA, “Design for Diplomacy: New Embassies for the 21st Century” (.pdf file), which called on the State Department to integrate embassy security with design excellence. It included 59 recommendations made by the AIA’s 21st Century Embassy Task Force, an “unprecedented” collaboration of a variety of stakeholders.
The AIA also commended the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) for launching a design excellence program intended to produce diplomatic facilities that incorporate the best design practices to ensure security and sustainability. The OBO has completed 71 new diplomatic facilities over the last decade and presently has an additional 34 projects in design and construction phases.
