Monday, November 23, 2015

OBO's Year in Review Video



It's Fortress Embassies on Parade in this institutional self-congratulatory video showing off all the new embassy construction projects that were completed or are in progress during 2015. I'm lifting a glass to my good friends in the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations as I type this.

The video is introduced by SecState Kerry, who is well known to be a fan of good public architecture. He opens by talking a bit about the Poetry of Architecture versus the Prose of Security, I think it was. And then he talks a bit more about The Face of America, which foreigners can perceive in the façades of our embassies. Then he talks a bit more still about how protection is our top priority BUT we must not allow our security footprint to leave our visitors with the wrong impression.

Please enjoy!

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 24, 2015 at 8:21 PM

    That's real good TSB! gwb

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  2. JamesNovember 26, 2015 at 4:26 AM

    TSB, GWB,:
    Both of you have a good Thanksgiving. A quick thought on the film. The iffier the place the more concrete, the safer more glass. Some of those places I could have walked onto and felt right at home. I now know where all the I. M. Pei wanna bees went to.

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  3. TSBNovember 26, 2015 at 1:36 PM

    James: I hope you're having a happy Thanksgiving as well. I guess you're right about that concrete-to-glass relationship. The worse the security environment, the heavier our footprint.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 26, 2015 at 8:28 PM

    Thanks James and TSB! You too!! gwb

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  5. AnonymousNovember 27, 2015 at 4:57 AM

    James: Do you sometimes have the feeling that your freeways are too crowded and slow? Construction delays and cost over-runs putting nerves on edge? Ask your Dr. about Chi-Com construction. They can build almost anything virtually overnite! gwb

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-26/caught-tape-china-builds-bridge-just-43-hours (they are even using machines now)

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