TenBerke, REX selected by State Department to support OBO

The Division of State (DOS) has shared a listing of structure companies that have been chosen to “present complete A/E providers for varied areas worldwide,” in accordance with System of Award Administration, an e-procurement authorities web site. 

The architects have been chosen after a “extremely aggressive” two-stage course of that started in March 2024 and had over 100 submissions. It’s a Worldwide AE Design IDIQ order. (“IDIQ” stands for Indefinite Supply, Indefinite Amount and is used for variable purchases inside a said timeframe.)

Per the Bureau of Abroad Buildings Operations (OBO) on LinkedIn, the chosen companies are: 

The shortlisted companies will “help the Bureau’s mission over the subsequent 5 years.” REX and Weiss/Manfredi introduced the choice on their social media feeds.

“These regionally numerous companies will signify the US as OBO delivers the subsequent technology of safe, resilient diplomatic amenities,” OBO shared in a press release.

“Their work might be central to OBO’s mission to offer the best amenities for U.S. diplomacy overseas guaranteeing the US is safer, stronger, and extra affluent,” OBO continued.

A number of of the chosen companies’ leaders are already concerned with OBO by way of its Trade Advisory Group, which incorporates Anne Marie Duvall Decker, Thomas Phifer, and Marion Weiss, amongst others.

Thomas Robinson, who leads LEVER Structure as a principal, is a juror for AN’s Better of Follow Awards this yr, and others have served as previous jurors or introduced their work at Facades+. 

Alternatives are already on the market: The OBO is at present soliciting responses for design/construct development providers for a brand new embassy compound in Talllinn, Estonia.

Responses are due on April 13. Mark Cavagnero Associates serves because the Planning and Bridging Architect for the challenge. It has an estimated completion date of 2031.

U.S. Diplomacy By way of Development

The U.S. has constructed nearly 170 new diplomatic amenities up to now 20 years world wide. This development growth was spurred by a collection of embassy bombings in 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In 1999, the Abroad Presence Advisory Panel concluded that “over 85 % of the diplomatic amenities overseas have been susceptible to future assaults.” The Capital Safety Development Program was subsequently enacted, an initiative aimed toward updating U.S. diplomatic outposts worldwide.

The OBO was established in 2001, after 9/11. It’s the “the only actual property supervisor for the planning, acquisition, design, development, operations, upkeep, and disposal of U.S. governmental diplomatic and consular property abroad.”

OBO has employed distinguished architects for main buildings. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects was tapped in 2013 to design a brand new U.S. chancery in Mexico Metropolis as a part of this system, and Studio Gang designed a consulate in Brasilia.

In 2025, the OBO, following the path of the second Trump administration, despatched architects a memo demanding they take away language associated to DEI and local weather change from challenge statements, as reported by AN.

A number of of the companies DOS lately chosen to help the OBO have been additionally chosen in previous cycles. Weiss/Manfredi as an example was commissioned to design the new U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India, as a part of this system.

KieranTimberlake accomplished the new U.S. embassy in London. And Ennead has designed U.S. embassies in Ankara, Türkiye; Nogales, Mexico; and Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Morphosis designed the new U.S. embassy compound in Beirut, Lebanon. SHoP Architects is designing a new U.S. embassy in Milan.

Richärd Kennedy Architects designed the new U.S. embassy in Doha, Qatar; Hermosillo, Mexico; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 2023, Krueck & Sexton Architects was concerned in controversy as a part of this system when it was tasked with planning a brand new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on the “Allenby Barracks” web site—property that was allegedly “illegally confiscated from its unique Palestinian homeowners.”

An open letter referred to as upon Krueck & Sexton Companions to “instantly withdraw from the Israeli planning course of and cease their participation in and endorsement of Israel’s unlawful seizures of Palestinian land in Jerusalem.”