New Embassy Compound Media Day Remarks

Ambassador Clark T. Randt, Jr.
Ambassador of the United States of America to China
New Embassy Complex
August 5, 2008
9:30am – 9:50pm
(Approximately five minutes)

 

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

After more than 15 years of discussions and four and a half years of construction, I take great personal pride in welcoming all of you to a preview of our magnificent new and state of the art United States Embassy Beijing complex, which will be officially dedicated this Friday by the President of the United States.

 

Our new embassy together with the impressive new Chinese embassy in Washington, which was dedicated on July 29, are tangible symbols of the growth and importance of our bilateral relationship.

 

When I arrived in Beijing in 2001, we had a staff of approximately 500 personnel in 10 agencies spread across eight locations in Beijing.  Today, we are a staff of 1,100 in 26 agencies, working out of 22 locations.  For the first time, we will be working together in one consolidated and secure operating site.  The stunning complex before you provides over 600,000 square feet of office space and, together with the overall interior and landscaping, was designed by a team from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill led by Craig Hartman out of that firm’s San Francisco office, and Tamara Dinsmore who did the interior design after winning the State Department’s project competition.  This state of the art complex was built by an American joint venture construction company comprised of Zachry Construction Corporation out of San Antonio, Texas, and Caddell Construction, out of Montgomery, Alabama.

 

The Zachary-Caddell joint venture was ably assisted by the Beijing construction engineering group.  As a result of their joint efforts, this new complex was built to meet unprecedented security requirements, while at the same time being energy efficient and providing a comfortable work environment maximizing natural light.  This unprecedented undertaking would not have been possible without the extraordinary attention given to its creation, supervision and coordination by the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations particularly its top leadership under General Chuck Williams and, more recently, Dick Shinnick, and the outstanding efforts of its experienced and talented project managers:  P.K. Bagchi and, more recently, William Prior.

 

I want to also thank Sharon Eaton, who assisted with the interior and who will be guiding you on your tour today.   This modern, high-tech complex is not only welcoming to visitors, but encourages interaction among personnel.  The interior was designed after extensive interviews with embassy staff to reflect their needs and preferences, creating a tailored and highly efficient work place.  The enlarged consular section will permit us to meet the rapidly increasing demand for visas to visit the United States, while providing a more comfortable environment for applicants. 

 

The new embassy complex also houses spectacular pieces of modern art thanks to the focused efforts and coordination of the director of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, Anne Johnson.  I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, a private group which has donated to the embassy some of the wonderful works that you are about to see, including, among others, Jeff Koon’s famous sculpture, Tulips, artwork by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, and a piece by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.

This spectacular new embassy complex will provide the United States government with a platform appropriate for the most important bilateral relationship of the 21^st century, the United States-China relationship.  I personally very much look forward to moving to our new offices in mid-September after the Olympics and hope you enjoy the new complex as much as I do.

Thank you for coming.