Located nine kilometers southeast of Guatemala City’s historic center, the new U.S. embassy emphasizes the important diplomatic relationship between the United States and Guatemala and provides a first impression of the U.S. for many Guatemalans who plan to visit the country. Programmatic requirements, along with a relatively small steeply sloping lot, informed the site’s planning. The design team drew on the organizational layout of the ceremonial and residential planning of Maya cities they visited, including Tikal, Yaxha, and Copan.
Using an innovative terracing method to stabilize the extreme topography, the design team integrated the campus program while providing generous outdoor gardens for visitors and staff. The new chancery building pays homage to many of Guatemala’s grand temples that seemingly grow out of the forest floor and rise above its canopy. With native species densely planted at the base of the structure, the building emerges from the ground plane as two complementary bars—a stone base and a glass tower. The base reflects an earthbound quality through its materiality and relationship to the site while the tower is characterized by openness and transparency.
The design team elected to change the building materiality at the upper tower to reinterpret the quiet monumentality that the grand temples have when viewed above the forest canopy from one temple to another. The design creates significant areas of forest and native vegetation that link to several significant green spaces, including the Parque Ecologico Jacarandas de Cayala and Parque Ecologico y Deportivo Cayala. The State Department’s Art in Embassies program curated artwork for the building to reflect cultural connections between the United States and Guatemala.
Many of the pieces are by Guatemalan artists, while others, not created locally, still bear a connection to the surrounding land and are conceptually rooted in Guatemalan culture.
Located nine kilometers southeast of Guatemala City’s historic center, the new U.S. embassy emphasizes the important diplomatic relationship between the United States and Guatemala and provides a first impression of the U.S. for many Guatemalans who plan to visit the country. Programmatic requirements, along with a relatively small steeply sloping lot, informed the site’s planning. The design team drew on the organizational layout of the ceremonial and residential planning of Maya cities they visited, including Tikal, Yaxha, and Copan.
Using an innovative terracing method to stabilize the extreme topography, the design team integrated the campus program while providing generous outdoor gardens for visitors and staff. The new chancery building pays homage to many of Guatemala’s grand temples that seemingly grow out of the forest floor and rise above its canopy. With native species densely planted at the base of the structure, the building emerges from the ground plane as two complementary bars—a stone base and a glass tower. The base reflects an earthbound quality through its materiality and relationship to the site while the tower is characterized by openness and transparency.
The design team elected to change the building materiality at the upper tower to reinterpret the quiet monumentality that the grand temples have when viewed above the forest canopy from one temple to another. The design creates significant areas of forest and native vegetation that link to several significant green spaces, including the Parque Ecologico Jacarandas de Cayala and Parque Ecologico y Deportivo Cayala. The State Department’s Art in Embassies program curated artwork for the building to reflect cultural connections between the United States and Guatemala.
Many of the pieces are by Guatemalan artists, while others, not created locally, still bear a connection to the surrounding land and are conceptually rooted in Guatemalan culture.