Architects Berger Devine Yaeger:
Following successful completion of the preliminary concept plans and the full embassy master plan, Berger was commissioned to prepare the design-build “bridging documents” (based on 35% design) for construction of the self-contained embassy compound. Berger Devine Yaeger, Inc. (BDY) was the architect for this work. The construction (currently underway) is being executed in four concurrent packages. This self-contained compound will include the embassy itself, residences for the ambassador and staff, PX, commissary, cinema, retail and shopping, restaurants, schools, fire station and supporting facilities such as power generation, water purification system, telecommunications, and waste water treatment facilities. In total, the 104 acre compound will include over twenty buildings including one classified secure structure and housing for over 380 families.

Washington Post
Thursday, May 24, 2007

Over the years the area was renamed — it’s now officially known as the “International Zone” — the fortifications were expanded and U.S. tanks were parked at the gates. As the security situation in Baghdad worsened, others with the right connections or titles moved in. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government lives and works in the zone, which also houses the Iraqi parliament. Thousands of foreign contractors live there. U.S. civilian officials live there along with their military and contractor protectors. Meanwhile, a massive U.S. Embassy compound — 24 buildings on 104 acres inside the zone, the biggest and most expensive embassy in the world — is under construction and due for completion in August.

Although the State Department has not budged from an original embassy price tag of $592 million, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) complained two weeks ago to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of a “growing size in costs” and a staffing increase of more than 30 percent since Congress approved the State Department’s plans two years ago. Leahy chairs the appropriations subcommittee in charge of the foreign operations budget.

“We have 1,000 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad,” Leahy told Rice at a hearing. “You add the contractors and the local staff, it comes to 4,000 . . . a deviation from the plan that we’d agreed to.” According to Senate staffers, operating costs now total $1.2 billon a year.

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