Multidisciplinary design practice Weiss/Manfredi has broken ground on the reimagined U.S. Embassy campus in New Delhi, India. Designed for the U.S. Department of State with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, the project aims to support the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership with a new chancery building for the embassy. The project includes restoring Edward Durell Stone’s early modernist Chancery Building and remaking the 28-acre compound into a resilient campus.
Following the first phase, the long-term master plan includes a new office building, a support annex, and a unifying landscape to create a secure campus in India. Inspired by India’s tradition of weaving together architecture and landscape, the team created a series of cast stone screens, canopies, reflecting pools, and garden walls to introduce a new campus design language.
“Our goal is to create an open, unified campus that is safe and secure,” said architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. “To do that, we drew upon traditional Indian garden elements such as walls, screens, moats, and reflecting pools that provide not only a level of security, but also a connection to the great legacy of Indian architecture. The new embassy buildings and gardens reference Edward Durell Stone’s historic chancery, introduce a resilient design language and transform the campus to meet the needs of twenty-first century diplomacy.”
As the team notes, the Office of Art in Embassies is curating an art collection that will showcase works from both Indian and U.S. artists in a variety of media, including paintings, photography, textiles, and sculptures. Highlights include a site-specific work by contemporary Indian artist Bharti Kher whose stone inlay piece will be integrated permanently into the India-sourced marble flooring for the consular area, and a glass installation by American artist Spencer Finch that will be positioned below the office building’s entry skylight.
Anticipated completion of the entire campus project is Fall 2027.
News via Weiss/Manfredi
