Tower of Power

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice and her staff moved this morning into the new U.S. mission to the United Nations, a 26-story solid concrete tower that is designed to protect America’s diplomats from a suicide car bomb or chemical or biological weapon attack. Its completion is two years behind schedule.

Designed by the architectural firm Gwathmey, Siegel & Associates, the building is one of a new generation of hardened U.S. diplomatic outposts that have been erected in response to Al Qaeda attacks on American targets.

The building — which I wrote about in the Washington Post last year — sends an unmistakable message that American diplomats, confronting two major Middle East wars and struggling to combat international terrorists, operate in an increasingly dangerous world. It has drawn criticism from some observers, who feel that it projects an intimidating message to foreign diplomats and nationals who visit the building to do business with the United States.

"The new structure represents the current age…It clearly shows American diplomacy under siege, physically" Jeffrey Laurenti, an analyst on the U.N. at the Century Foundation, told Turtle Bay.

The quest to safeguard America’s diplomats began in 1998, when Al Qaeda launched a simultaneous suicide attack against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring more than 5,000. A review of U.S. diplomatic security in the wake of the bombings concluded that more than 180 U.S. embassies and consulates were vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and Congress mandated an unprecedented construction spree to replace those structures. The 9/11 attacks, which felled two Manhattan skyscrapers, only reinforced the need for safer buildings.

The new tower replaces a small honeycomb, concrete structure, designed in the Brutalist style, that served as the U.S. mission to the United Nations from 1953 until late 2004, but lacked the space to accommodate an expanding team of diplomats. That building — which was routinely derided by U.N. diplomats as an eyesore — was torn down in late 2004, sending the U.S. diplomatic corps to a rental building on 44th street and Lexington Avenue.

"The new building is a modern state of the art facility that will help us as we work each day to advance U.S. interests at the United Nations," said Mark Kornblau, the spokesman for the U.S. mission. "It’s much easier to exert U.S. leadership and advance critical national security priorities from right across the street."

Kornblau said that the mission’s staff packed up their boxes on Friday and moved into the new building this morning. The U.S. Foreign Press Center, which was previously located further uptown, is planning to move into the new building later this month.

The new digs — which will house more than 300 U.S. diplomats and other federal officials — have generated little affection from the U.N. community. One top U.N. official, who declined to speak publicly out of fear of offending the Americans, noted that if a nuclear bomb struck Manhattan the only ones to survive would be the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. staff at the mission.

But one of the chief architects, Charles Gwathmey, told me before he passed away that he  was proud of the building, particular its sand-colored concrete skin, noting that he had received a call from the renowned architect I.M. Pei, who asked him, " ‘How did you get that beautiful concrete?’ He thought it looked fantastic."

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