The embassy of the future: recommendations for the design of future U.S. embassy buildings

National Research Council, 1986. — 90 c.In late 1984, the U.S. Congress, responding to growing concerns over the security of U.S. Foreign Service personnel and facilities abroad, authorized the State Department to carry out advanced research on the development and application of state-of-the-art security measures. The State Department sought the advice of the National Research Council's Building Research Board (BRB).
The BRB established for this purpose in early 1985 the Committee on Research for the Security of Future U.S. Embassy Buildings. Its members include distinguished persons from a variety of fields, including building design and construction, landscape planning and design, physical and communications security, cost estimation and control, architecture, structural engineering, and mechanical and electrical engineering. The committee also includes an ambassador of the United States (retired), a leading expert on terrorism and terrorist incidents, and liaison representatives from other agencies of the U.S. government that have active foreign and domestic construction programs. The committee and staff, aided by consultants and contractors expert in fields related to building design and security, have conducted detailed inquiries into a broad range of subjects that are concerned with the security of personnel and vital information in U.S. embassy buildings. The committee has maintained active contact with many offices within the State Department, as well as with the Secretary of State's Advisory Panel on Overseas Security. Members of the committee and staff traveled to a number of foreign posts and received numerous briefings from the State Department and from other U.S. government agencies with related interests.
This report summarizes the committee's recommendations after more than a year of work. The recommendations are concerned with security-related issues in virtually every aspect of the planning, design, construction, and management of the State Department's overseas buildings. In view of the plans now being implemented by the State Department to build anew, relocate, or substantially modify a large number of foreign posts, and in the face of everincreasing concern over acts of terrorism and espionage directed against U.S. citizens and facilities abroad, the committee's work has taken on added urgency and significance.