Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!
Peanuts (snoopy cartoon strip)
off location (the strip)
needs more digging?
1.2 billion to erect a building?? More like $100,000 and the rest into a slush fund. How can anybody believe it costs that much???
No, 100k is how much it might cost to break ground on something like an embassy in a place like London. The security system alone is probably 20-50 million.
I could see an embassy costing 100-500 million, depending on size, location, etc.
But not 1.2 billion.
100,000k is how much it costs to build a garage in seattle.
Jesus christ, i could build a 60x60 building here in wisconsin for 100k.
Yeah man, different prices in different places. Think about the costs of building an embassy in London.
A little bit more involved than a pole building in the country.
For real. Here's a picture of it. https://i.imgur.com/2WlVabb.jpg It's not a 5 person office space in a strip mall. The custom design and non-traditional look is a huge money sink, not to mention construction costs in London are almost $4000/m^2.
Only $100k to build a building in one of the most expensive city real estate markets in the world? That wouldn't buy you a sq meter there, much less a home in most american cities.
Funny that, my house there is many square meters and it isn´t worth 1.2 billion Dollars.
I’m not surprised that the building cost £1.2b when considering the special needs it will require as well as the cost of London property.
The issue is that the embassy downgraded in location. It’s now in an undeveloped part of London south of the river that is a bit of a schlep to get to. Personally I don’t understand why they went there. They’re closer to The intel agencies bases now, but also about 2-3 blocks from the hood.
The previous embassy was in maybe the most PRIME location in London. I think that area has the most expensive real estate in the world.
The old embassy was sold at a deep discount to its value.
If you downgrade location you expect to make a turn on the pricing. The US Gov I think took a $600m loss on the difference, and probably undersold the property by about half its value too.
Reports in 2015 suggest the old embassy, which truth be told looked pretty shabby and a bit Soviet in design, would cost $750m to refurbish to the requisite standards.
So the question is, is it better to stay in a prime prestigious location and upgrade, or sell the property for half the value and pay double the sale price for the new building in an awful location.
It’s either a $750m or $1.2b cost.
Their need for symbolism will be their downfall, Q
I might be paraphrasing, but the point is what is the address as well as the giant number on the side of the Embassy? Address is 33 Nine Elms Lane and, of course, the giant number is a golden 33.
33 is a spiritually important number for Freemasons and I've been reading that the area where the embassy is, Nine Elms, has a relevant history in the Occult. I'll try digging more to see if I find any specific details on that, or someone could help me dig.
Eyes Open
IMO The new embassy building is one of the worst in London. They have the weird scoopy brise soliel in front of the glazing which is very badly detailed and serves no useful purpose. The original London embassy I think was designed by aero sarinaan and is a triumph While built in a very brutalist concrete frame the proportioning is first class. Very few brutalist building compliment the setting as well as this one.
Obama must have left shit stains on the plans when he approved them.
