House of Sweden Embassy

Location

Washington, D.C.

Services

Survey
Civil Engineering

Project Size

85,000 SF

Completion Date

2006

Total Cost

$120 Million

Client

Armada/Hoffler

Wiles Mensch Corporation – DC (WM) participated in the design and construction of the new Swedish embassy in Washington DC. The embassy is housed in a dramatic new 85,000 SF building situated at the convergence of the Potomac River and Rock Creek in Georgetown. The site provides spectacular views across the Potomac River, giving the glowing glass walled structure a grand presence on the river. The unique design by renowned Swedish architects, Gert Wingårdh and Tomas Hansen, consists of a six-story glass box with marble steps and a simple colonnade. Upper floors extend outward to take advantage of the needle-shaped site. The building is a lower podium element and a three-story, raised, illuminated glass-clad box.

The House of Sweden is the southernmost building of the Harbourside Development. It comprises of a new Class A office building on the north end of the site to compliment the House of Sweden. Linking the two is a landscaped courtyard, which extends the historic Virginia Avenue view corridor to Rock Creek Park. The project includes a two level, below grade parking garage covered by a surface park.

WM provided civil engineering services to include First and Second Stage Condominium Plat and Plans for this project. The site had many difficult constraints to address as part of the site work design and involved extensive meetings with the relevant District of Columbia review agencies to resolve.

Rendering courtesy of: Armada/Hoffler

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