The US embassy has embarked on an estimated US$17 million worth of local investment project to construct their new embassy on five hectares of land in the Klein Windhoek area.
The multi-building project, amounting to some N$270 million, supports the important US–Namibian diplomatic and commercial relations and embodies the mission of overseas building operations to provide safe, secure, functional and resilient facilities that provide a robust platform for US diplomacy abroad.
“This is an impressive team. This project shows that a team of individuals from 21 countries can work together and excel. There has not been a lost-time accident on this site in over 300 days, which is ahead of the US construction industry standards,” noted Jess Long, US chargé d’affaires.
The design employs advanced energy-efficiency strategies and systems that will significantly reduce energy demand, which includes passive environment strategies to reduce heat gain with carefully calibrated building orientation, self-shading devices and an optimised façade design.
It’s designed to mitigate the effects of erosion and maximise the benefits of limited seasonal rains.
The construction project employs 810 workers, mostly Namibians, and others from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Madagascar, Jordan, Uganda, Zambia, Togo, Senegal, Benin and Germany, to name but a few.
“American companies bring with them the world’s best skills. Their employees learn those skills, and can use them for the rest of their lives. It has also brought engineering students onto the site to help them learn in a practical way so that they are more likely to succeed when they graduate,” said Long.
She furthermore stated that 97% of the waste from the construction site is being recycled.
“The state-of-the-art embassy will be a platform from which the US and Namibia fight Covid-19, HIV/AIDS and future pandemics that might threaten the world,” she added.
The construction, facilitated by BL Harbert, has the chancery’s east-west orientation which provides views over the Klein Windhoek River basin and reduces solar heat gain while working within existing water drainage patterns.
Clad in red sandstone, the building echoes the Namibian landscape and evokes the colours and imagery of natural landmarks such as the nearby Kalahari Desert, the stone formations of Damaraland, and the iconic Sossusvlei dunes located in the southern part of the Namib Desert.