The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw serves as a political and physical link between Poland and the United States. As the Mission Statement describes, \"The American Embassy in Warsaw protects and promotes American interests and develops relations with Poland through contacts with the Polish government, business, labor, agriculture, media and education leaders.";"Prospective Architect Listed: 1954 (c) / Design: 1957 (c) / Completion: 1963 (c)

The five-story main chancery building and three-story Piekna Annex were both stated to be well-maintained in the U.S. Department of State's September 2011 Inspection Report. Both buildings were noted in the report to lack fire sprinklers and an assembly hall, both of which were seen as crucial. The U.S. Department of State funded a $650,000 flood mitigation project aimed at the chancery building. The embassy has initiated security upgrades to the chancery building, and the same building will require a new roof in the coming years.

U.S. Embassy

The embassy is a glass, concrete, and metal facade, materials typical of the work done by Welton Becket and Associates.

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is located on Ujazdow Avenue (Aleje Ujazdowskie) between Ulica Wilcza and Ulica Piekna. It is located in the Srodmiescie district of Warsaw, which means the \"downtown" or "city center" and houses both the Old Town (Stare Miasto) and New Town (Nowe Miasto) historic districts. The U.S. Embassy is neighbored by the embassies of other countries, including Romania, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia, and New Zealand.

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw complex consists of a five-story main chancery building and a three-story annex, named the Piekna Annex after the street which it faces. The plan of the complex consists of a rectangle with a central courtyard and a front facade which is taller than the rest of the building. The annex is an extension that forms an arm to the side road. The main facade is characteristic of the Modern Movement in its distinct simplicity and lack of ornament, use of new materials particularly metal, glass, and concrete, and its flat, horizontal arrangement and rhythmic balance of windows. The glass is the focus of this facade, and was also the center of criticism by the Architectural Advisory Panel in 1957, which cited it as a security concern for the embassy and the entire facade unable to provide the architectural dignity and appropriateness that masonry could provide.

The Foreign Building Office's decision to hire private architects for the design of new diplomatic buildings in the post-war construction period was based on the design requirements of the office. The designs were challenged not only to be contextual to the country's architecture, respectful of both the historic buildings and local traditions and customs, but also be inspiringly American, new, and boldly modern, in order to garner respect for the United States. The architects chosen were those that the FBO believed had exhibited these qualities in previous work.

During World War II, the building that served as the U.S. Embassy was destroyed. In the interim between the re-establishment of the embassy and the construction of the new building, the mission took place in a Warsaw hotel. The need for a new building was clearly identified. In the mid-1940s and early 1950s, the Foreign Buildings Office of the United States began an extensive embassy and diplomatic building program. The feasibility of this program was primarily due to the post-war boom, in which funds were available, land was cheap, political or facility requirements changed (including the establishment of new nations), and, as in the case of Warsaw, embassy buildings were destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. In 1954, Pietro Belluschi, who was hired as an architect for the Foreign Buildings Office, created a memo nominating prominent architects and firms for the design of the future embassy buildings. Welton Becket was on the list, and was also one of the architects to later receive a commission. That commission was the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.

Welton Becket's design for the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw fits with the context of modern architecture in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as the stock of other designs by his firm. It is characterized by a clean and simple facade, a significant use of glass, rhythmic window placement, and a distinct lack of ornament. Even with the criticism it faced at its outset, the design was successful in its purpose, and is even considered to be one of the best examples of embassy architecture in Poland. The design is also in harmony with other U.S. embassy architecture of the period, contributing to the context as a whole.

Hunt, William Dudley. Total Design. Architecture of Welton Becket and Associates. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

Inspection of Embassy, Warsaw, Poland. U.S. Department of State Office of Inspections. Report Number ISP-I-11-64A, September 2011.

Loeffler, Jane C. Architecture of Diplomacy : Building America's Embassies. New York, NY, USA: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

Loeffler, Jane C. \"The Architecture of Diplomacy: Heyday of the United States Embassy-Building Program, 1954-1960." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Vol. 49, No. 3 (Sep. 1990):251-278.

Poland. U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Web. 10 February 2013.

United States Diplomatic Mission to Warsaw, Poland. U.S. Department of State. Web. 10 February 2013.

Welton Becket Associates. Welton Becket Associates. Los Angeles, Ca., 1950.

Beata Sasi?ska / February 2013