Harlem Fire Watchtower

Harlem is one of New York City’s most vibrant and historically significant neighborhoods and home to the majestic Marcus Garvey Park . Perched 70 feet above street level, on top of the park’s Atrium, is the historical Harlem Fire Watchtower, also known as the Mount Morris Park Tower. Designed by James Bogardus and built by German American engineer Julius H. Kroehl, from 1855 to 1857, the Tower stands 47 feet tall, with a 10,000-pound bell suspended at its center.

After a catastrophic fire in 1835, a series of watch towers were built throughout New York City to give firefighters a bird’s eye view to watch over the wooden buildings of the community, and ring the bell to alert the local fire station. As industrialization swept America, and pull boxes were invented, the watchtowers, which numbered eleven at their peak, became obsolete, and in time the towers were torn down.

Due to its location in the city and the support of the community, the Harlem Fire Watchtower is the only surviving structure from Bogardus’ designs using cast-iron architecture which inspired the steel cages that help support our modern-day skyscrapers. The Tower became a New York City landmark in 1967, and underwent full restoration in 2019. Today, this historical monument stands tall, honoring the evolution of the NYC Fire Department.

US Embassy in London

The US Embassy building in London is a remarkable landmark, with a design that combines utility, security, and sustainability with a striking appearance, inside and out. Opened in 2017, the building is relatively new. The design, by Philadelphia-based architecture firm Kieran Timberlake, is meant to evoke some of the foundational ideals of American government – transparency, openness, and equality. The building’s simple cube shape maximizes useable space in a high-traffic embassy, and the façade made of transparent, high-performance plastic catches the sunlight in an appealing and useful way, directing the natural light throughout the interior of the building. The outside of the building also boasts a landscaped pond that serves double duty as an attractive aesthetic feature and a rainwater retention system, reducing strain on the municipal water system and pollution of the nearby Thames River by repurposing collected water for irrigation and mechanical systems. The inside of the building is equally well designed, featuring indoor gardens and countless works of art, including an enormous mural created with the words in the US Constitution.

The US Capitol in Washington DC

The United States Capitol building is one of the most recognizable structures in the country. Its broad wings extend to the north and south, and its tall white dome is one of its most notable features. The building, originally designed in the 1790s, was created as a symbol of democracy and freedom. Surrounded by vast green lawns and a series of monuments, memorials, and museums, the building is impressive even today. The city of Washington DC was built with the Capitol at its center. George Washington’s trusted city planner, the Frenchman Pierre Charles L’Enfant, designed the city with wide diagonal boulevards connecting important sites, many of them radiating out from Capitol Hill. This design allows the building’s distinct dome to be seen from great distances, including from the White House, the baseball stadium, several city parks, and Union Station, where many people arrive in the city.

New York Times: "With Move Across London, U.S. Embassy Can’t Please Everyone"

The new US Embassy in London under construction. (Photo by US Embassy London used under Creative Commons.)

The US Embassy in London is moving locations, and not everyone is happy about it. After years of criticism and protests by local residents against the current Embassy building in Grosvenor Square because of safety and security concerns—the protests included a hunger strike by a countess—the US Embassy is moving from its Modernist concrete building in beautiful, historic, and exclusive Mayfair, where the Embassy has been based since 1960, to a more protected and environmentally responsible building in the gritty district of Nine Elms on the South Bank of the Thames. While the move planned for 2017 is welcomed by local Mayfair residents who for years have feared terrorist attacks, the new location also has its own critics.

The new building was designed by Philadelphia firm KieranTimberlake to reflect "the core values of democracy—transparency, openness, and equality" and also to be "welcoming, secure, and highly sustainable." The design, however, has been called "boring," a "corporate office block," and "the Ice Cube." Former Guardian architecture critic Jonathan Glancey said that the proposed building is "remote and superficially transparent" and that it reflects "what we can divine of the US political process. Nominally open to all and yet, in practice, tightly controlled[.]"

Peter Rees, the City of London’s former head of planning, wrote in an email to the New York Times: “It seems sad that the U.S. Embassy is relocating from a beautiful historic square in Mayfair to a fortified bunker in former railyards on the far side of the river...It’s like moving from New York’s Upper East Side to New Jersey.”

Ambassador Robert Tuttle, who led the search for a new site, said on the London Embassy website: “We looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square. In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable Embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility.”

As the New York Times said when the original building design was chosen:

The project as a whole...is a fascinating study in how architecture can be used as a form of camouflage. The building is set in a spiraling pattern of two small meadows and a pond that have as much to do with defensive fortification as with pastoral serenity: an eye-opening expression of the irresolvable tensions involved in trying to design an emblem of American values when you know it may become the next terrorist target.

No word if Gould Pharmacy, which rents lockers for applicants who cannot bring their large electronic items into the Embassy, will also open a new location. It might be finally time to leave those large electronics at home.