U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou Receives Design Award

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New U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China Receives Architect Magazine's Annual Design Review Award

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
December 30, 2013

SOM's U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China.​

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Architect magazine has selected the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China as one of 17 projects that represent the best in American architecture for its 2013 annual design review. The U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou was one of four projects for office, government, and commercial mixed-use projects awarded.

"The 150,000-square-foot building’s unfussy massing and frank expression lent it a degree of candor and simplicity that propelled it to the top of the heap."​

The award jury reviewed nearly 250 project entries worldwide that were completed between June 2012 and September 2013.

The consulate building is representative of a quality that we want to continue to see in foreign projects, where our soft culture can be embraced,” juror Sheila Kennedy said.​

The jury noted that “the consulate building is representative of a quality that we want to continue to see in foreign projects, where our soft culture can be embraced.”

The project is as important for the extensive landscaping that surrounds it as for the building itself.​

The new Consulate General occupies a 7.5-acre lot in the city’s Pearl River New Town district. The project was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) of San Francisco, California and was built by B.L. Harbert International, LLC of Birmingham, Alabama and China Huashi Enterprises LTD of Chengdu, China.

The gardens and paved areas are decidedly public in character.​

OBO’s mission is to provide safe, secure, and functional facilities for the conduct of U.S. diplomacy and the promotion of U.S. interests worldwide. These facilities should represent American values and the best in American architecture, engineering, technology, sustainability, maintainability, art, culture, and construction execution.

Pathways are lined in a locally quarried stone that also clads the body of the consulate.​

For more information, please contact Christine Foushee at FousheeCT@state.gov or (703) 875-4131, or visit the Architect magazine website at United States Consulate General - Architect Magazine.

At ground level, wood cladding softens the building's exterior.​

The jurors also expressed their admiration for the building’s “softening-edge component,” the extensive use of wood and joinery that frame many of its interiors.​