The plan to build a new American embassy in Lebanon is not new. But the U.S. State Department recently announced that that construction will soon begin. An American company, B.L. Harbert of from Birmingham, Alabama won the bid to construct the embassy. The new embassy was designed by California architects, Morphosis, back in 2013. The plan is to build it in Awkar, next to the current American embassy. The expected cost of building this new embassy is $1 billion (USD). It will be 174,000 square meters and should be in operation as of 2023. The U.S. State Department said:
It would be a “multibuilding complex” that would sit beside the existing facilities but that current buildings would remain “for the foreseeable future.”
The statement went on to say that the “new complex will include a Chancery, a Marine Security Guard Residence, representational and staff housing, facilities for the community and associated support facilities.” The U.S. Department’s Capital Security Construction Program, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, has completed 133 new diplomatic facilities in the past 18 years, with an additional 52 projects currently in the design stage or under construction.
Source: U.S. Department of State
