Publications
The Architecture of
Diplomacy
Building America's Embassies
by Jane C. Loeffler
(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998)
320 pp, 154 illustrations, appendices, notes, index
Out of print
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Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former ambassador to India (1973-75)
and Honorary Member of AIA:
"The Architecture of Diplomacy is a splendidly presented treatise on both [architecture and diplomacy]. Beginning in the 1950s, as new nations came into being across the globe, the United States built new embassies designed as statements of recognition and welcome. Almost invariably, the new countries began as democracies, and our new buildings were intended to express the achievement and accomplishment of American democracy. If many of these buildings stand now as a reproach to existing regimes, so be it. The State Department planners of the 1950s built better than they knew!" |
Jane C. Loeffler, a scholar in architectural history and American civilization, extensively researched the history and politics of U.S. embassy design and building, focusing on the years following World War II. These high-profile, often controversial structures - projections abroad of American art, culture, and political philosophy - have formed the settings for the conduct of U.S. diplomacy in the latter half of the twentieth century. In this generously illustrated account of the State Department and the Congress, of architects and changing times, Dr. Loeffler dissects the interplay of domestic politics, international affairs, and an array of functional and symbolic requirements. Her book adds greatly to our understanding of both architecture and diplomacy.
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Howard Fineman, Chief Political Correspondent, Newsweek, and ABC News
Analyst:
"What do we, as a nation, mean to say to the world? Jane C. Loeffler shrewdly looks for answers in a crucial yet neglected place: the architecture of America's embassies. From the petty jealousies on Capitol Hill to the fine points of modernist design, Loeffler's effortlessly erudite and highly readable account explains how our government has tried - with mixed success - to represent us abroad in steel and stone." |
Loeffler explores the often innovative architectural design of America's embassies, the policy and political ramifications of their construction, and the surrounding partisan battles during a remarkable chapter in architectural history. Ranging from the start of the U.S. embassy building program through the 1996 Berlin embassy competition, the book highlights the 1950s - when modernism became linked with the idea of freedom and was showcased in embassy design. It also addresses the post-Vietnam era's paramount concern with security.
Jane C. Loeffler graduated from Wellesley and the
Harvard Graduate School of Design and earned her Ph.D. in American civilization
from the George Washington University. Her work on this book received
support from Wellesley, GWU, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies
in the Fine Arts.
Other Readers' Reviews
- The New Yorker (7 September 1998):
"The recent bombings in Kenya and Tanzania have endowed this conscientious, illuminating study of the State Department's Cold War building boom with unfortunate topicality. Competing with Russians, who stuck with Stalinist structures, the Americans opted for modernism. . . ."
- Architectural Record (January 1999):
"Insightful and meticulously researched, this fascinating history of America's embassy-building program is filled with stories of international intrigue and bureaucratic snarls."
- Metropolis (August/September 1998):
"This book will be a treasure to historians - both architectural and political - who have awaited it so eagerly, but it should also appeal to those less tickled by its copious notes and appendices. To Loeffler's credit The Architecture of Diplomacy reads like a Washington political thriller - architects clash with congressmen, diplomats carry on hushed intrigues in distant capitols. There is even a veiled moral to the story: Architecture exists as the product of an elaborate and contested process or it does not exist at all."
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