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Standard Embassy Design

The U.S. Embassy in Conakry, Guinea was among the first class
of Standard Embassy Design (SED) projects awarded in 2002

Background of the Standard Embassy Design (SED)

In 2001, the OBO Director, General Charles E. Williams (Ret.), instituted a number of best practices. One of these practices, the SED, is a cost-saving initiative that standardizes the design for chanceries and consulates. SED was developed as a tool to enable OBO to plan, award, design, and construct new embassy projects more efficiently than in the past; to simplify the building process; and to provide economically feasible facilities overseas.

What is the SED?

Under SED, new embassy projects are generally grouped into three categories: small, medium, and large. These categories allow OBO to take advantage of pre-engineered design solutions, thus reducing time and overall costs. (See attached for parameters of small, medium, large, and other types of SEDs).

The SED package consists of a series of documents, including site and building plans, specifications, design criteria, an application manual describing its adaptation for a specific project, and contract requirements. The SED provides plans for the site, the main office building, annex building, perimeter protection such as Compound Access Control facilities, warehouse, shops, utility building, recreation center, and Marine Security Guard Quarters.

Why is SED a preferred method of building design?

Using SED, in conjunction with disciplined management of project scopes and budgets, lowers costs, speeds construction, and enhances quality. Time for delivery of our NECs is now about 2 ½ to 3 ½ years versus more than 4 years.

In developing the SED, OBO revised its standard space parameters to match private sector office standards, updated its design criteria, evaluated previous projects to identify and incorporate best practices, determined what items had been problematic in previous projects, and incorporated U.S. industry codes and standards.

The SED consists of a fully developed set of bridging documents ideally suited for the Design/Build (D/B) contracting method. It provides the D/B contractor with a clear scope of work and standard of quality to be achieved. Best practices have already been embedded in the prototype such as life cycle value engineering, sustainable design, energy conservation, accessibility, maintainability, force protection, and appropriate architectural expression.

What are the elements of the SED?

The SED documents identify necessary requirements by incorporating fixed architectural and engineering concepts to ensure that new facilities are safe, secure, and functional. The SED office building is a three-part mass with two office blocks flanking a central atrium space. The front office block contains public access areas and general work areas. Service and secure areas are contained in the rear block. The atrium provides a community gathering space for special events and is a source of natural daylighting on all levels.

OBO adjusts the SED to meet site and post-specific requirements. Recognizing that many architectural decisions are already made and embedded in the SED, OBO encourages its D/B contractors to explore ways to adapt certain elements of the SED to reflect local materials and design. Size is adjusted by adding standard size bays (9 x 9 meters square) to the planned SEDs to meet building size requirements.

Continuous Refinement

At this time, OBO has used the SED on 48 projects (see attached SED Project Inventory), and has moved from development to refinement of the program. In addition to the original small, medium, and large SED categories, in 2007 OBO introduced the Standard Secure mini-Compound (SSmC) for very small posts operating under the Department of State Transformational Diplomacy initiative. In addition, the special embassy program allows use of the SED concept on projects larger than the four basic designs.

SED plans are regularly updated to include the improvements from previous projects. OBO continues to integrate lessons learned from previous projects; improve project planning and scope development; and look to expand the number of D/B contractors that can implement these important projects. In 2006, OBO established 20 principles under “New Ways to Think and Build.” These included making our SED a true “site adaptation” vehicle within a conventional D/B delivery process.