Cutting-Edge Chancery Plans are Lesson in Persistence for Swedes by Gail Scott If current Swedish Ambassador Jan Eliasson gets his way, Sweden will finally have its own chancery here after more than three decades. The House of Sweden, as it will be called, will be Swedenís spectacular diplomatic showcase and Washingtonís first embassy ever built directly on the Potomac River. Interestingly, here in the most important diplomatic posting in the world, Sweden is still the only major country without its own embassy building. Eliasson is the fifth Swedish ambassador in a row who has yearned to change that. ìAdmittedly, we have gone through a long period of searching for an embassy building,î said Eliasson, ìand finally 33 years later, we hope we have it.î The Swedes spent 24 years in the Watergate complex and eight years in their current downtown location at the corner of 15th and M streets, NW. Without a separate chancery where there is an obvious ìstreet presence,î a country such as Swedenówhich cherishes its major place in world history and takes special pride in its peacekeeping effortsódoesnít even have a proper place to fly its own blue-and-yellow flag. In comparison, the proposed Swedish chancery will be a Washington ìmust see.î Already, everyone is talking about how this new building will be seen from the Kennedy Center Terrace, the Key Roosevelt and Memorial bridges and, especially, from the air by planes flying in and out of Reagan National Airport. Built on Georgetownís waterfront between Thompsonís Boat House and the Washington Harbour, this graceful glass embassy will overlook the Potomac on the front half of a long vacant lot that runs along Rock Creek Park. Another new building to the north, currently under design by Washington architect Arthur Cotton Moore, will house a parking garage and other offices. Swedish architects Gert WingÂrdh and Tomas Hansen won the highly publicized competition among five of Swedenís top architectural firms with their ìclear and simpleî concept of a ìstranded boat.î Scheduled to open in 2006, Sweden House is designed to be an ingenious translucent glass house encircled by laminated wood and glass terraces. At night, the design will create a lighted ìwicker basketî effect with a ìreddish warm glow just like our two-hour long dawns and dusks, which are so very dear to all Scandinavians,î said WingÂrdh. Major architectural critics instantly praised the winning design after a February media conference at the Kennedy Center, but history has taught Eliasson and his Swedish team that they still have a long way to go before the final celebration. Why It Took So Long Eliasson knew that the long and meticulous job to reconsider building the waterfront embassy in Washingtonótogether with the Swedish Foreign Ministry and Swedenís National Building Boardówas only the first half of his diplomatic challenge. Former Swedish Ambassador Wilhelm Wachtmeister, long the dean of the diplomatic corps and a favorite tennis partner of the first President Bush, had tried unsuccessfully for eight years in the 1980s to win approval for a new embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Finally, in 1993, he lost the lengthy zoning battle. Understandably, Embassy Row neighbors didnít want to lose any street parking or suffer the heavier evening traffic and additional noise that can often come when an embassy is your neighbor. Although Sweden didnít get its new embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, Finland did. Current Finnish Ambassador Jukka Valtasaari, who was also the ambassador back then, was eager not to make the same expensive and embarrassing mistakes Sweden made. ìI went directly to Count Wachtmeister and told him I wanted to know what went wrong and what he would do if he had to do it over again,î said Valtasaari, who hoped to build an embassy just two blocks away from Swedenís site. Thatís when Valtasaari learned how important it was to befriend his well-healed and powerful Embassy Row neighbors. ìI joined the neighborhood association and invited the neighbors over,î said the shrewd diplomat whose residence is in the same Embassy Row neighborhood. The neighbors were included in the plans, drawings and a model of the new Finnish Embassy that even had ìsmiling people, miniature lights and real twigs.î Valtasaari admits that ìold-fashioned charmî made all the difference. That was nine years ago. Today, Finlandís contemporary green glass house serves as Washingtonís prototype for the new ìpublic diplomacy,î where embassies not only look like their countries, but are accessible and transparent public showcases for culture and trade. More than 100,000 visitors have ìmade a grand entranceî down Finlandís dramatic hanging staircase, Valtasaari noted, pleased with ìhow well our original concept design really works.î ìWe paved the way for the Swedes,î said Finlandís cultural counselor, Tuula Yrjo-Koskinen, an arts professional who produces the embassyís events. ìGood architecture and high-quality programming is whatís important,î added Yrjo-Koskinen, ìand, Iím sure the Swedes will do that.î Over the last decade, the Swedes enviously watched as their natural rival Finland garnered great praise and media coverage. Having a gracious but odd hacienda-style residence on Nebraska Avenue was clearly not enough anymore for the Swedes. First Waterfront Attempt In the mid-1990s, Swedish Ambassador Carl Henrik Sihver Liljegren and his Turkish wife, Nil, were the first to dream of this dramatic, romantic spot overlooking the Potomac, believing it to be the perfect spot to show off Swedenís cutting-edge engineering and world-class design. Coincidentally, Eliasson was in Sweden then as deputy secretary of state. ìAt that time, we worried about finances with this site and had great fear about the possibility of flooding,î he said. Georgetowner Alan Novak, a major commercial developer and a former member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, owned the property then and remembers how he and his Swedish wife Kitty had hoped to see a Swedish Embassy on the river. After the Swedes nixed the idea, Novak, now the developer of the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel overlooking Maine Avenue, sold the property. But back in Sweden, talk of a new waterfront embassy never stopped. They wondered if it was too extravagant to have both a spacious residence with extensive grounds and a new chancery. Some said the residence had to go. Re-enter Novak: ìWhen I heard that Jan Eliasson, our old McLean neighbor in the 1970s, was the new ambassador, I made a plan and went to talk with him about [a new embassy],î said Novak, who had already repurchased the property because he ìalways wanted to do something there, and I know itís all a matter of timing.î Interestingly, Eliasson also always says, ìIn diplomacy, itís all about timing.î Now, 11 years later, worries about flooding were answered by the Washington Harbourís efficient floodgates. Eliasson knew that building on the river in Washington, especially in Georgetown, would still be tricky and would take months of tedious meetings to get the approvals before any building permits were issued. Most of all, however, he wanted to make sure Sweden would succeed this time. Eliassonís head of chancery, Peter Lindgren, began work on getting a more flexible lease on the countryís current offices. He had just spent six years in Stockholm overseeing the combined renovation of the huge Swedish Foreign Ministry buildings dating from 1650, 1780 and 1950, and he knew the ministry now understood that the time was right to make a major investment in Washington because ìa Swedish Embassy would be needed here forever.î ëAn Instant Landmarkí Eliasson was bolstered by comments from Benjamin Forgey, the respected Washington Post critic who said that the new Swedish Embassy would become ìan instant landmarkî if ìbuilt as designed.î But this comment also warned the ambassador, a former Swedish naval officer, that he must navigate carefully through all the channels here and at home to ensure that the praise rang true. In March, with some trepidation, WingÂrdh and his colleague Hansen returned to Washington to begin informally meeting with the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E), the Old Georgetown Board and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Their goal: to win friends for their new project. They got rave reviews. The ANC 2E passed a surprise proposal endorsing the idea and the Old Georgetown Board actually applauded. This month, the Swedish team returns with the hopes of g aining official approval from these influential boards and commissions for the complete development project. ìIt is very important to me that people know that we enter this process to get permits with humility,î Eliasson said. ìWe want our embassy to be considered a wonderful addition, especially to the Georgetown community and to the waterfront and this beautiful city.î Charles H. Atherton, secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, said, ìI canít see anybody in official Washington having anything but a warm reactionî to this ìbeautiful building.î Atherton has no qualms about such a contemporary design in the oldest part of Washington. ìSouth of Whitehurst Freeway is different from the rest of Georgetown, so this contemporary design does not interfere with historic Georgetown,î he noted. Architect Gregory Hunt, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at Catholic University and the only American on the jury choosing the winning Swedish architects, agreed. ìThis will be an extraordinary positive contribution to the waterfront, Georgetown and the nationís capital,î said Hunt. ìIt conveys the idea of Swedishness, the essence of Swedish designóelegant simplicityówith a clear sense of openness and creative sensibility in the use of materials.î The architecture professor is ìespecially delightedî with the landscape efforts that will serve the public, improving the walkway along Rock Creek and the Potomac. ìThis will be a fairly significant landscaping project with five different micro-climates that evoke Sweden. For example, there will be a grove of birch trees and an amphitheater of wild flowers,î he said. Newest Obstacle: Terrorism In reaction to the war on terrorismówhen more and more Washington monuments and historic sites are being barricaded and U.S. embassies around the world are being designed to be like fortressesóthis winning Swedish design is surprisingly open and simple. ìWe wanted to make a statement, particularly in this age of terrorism,î noted Eliasson. ìIn the end, we had a consensus for the most beautiful design. ìIf we give in on basic values like openness, we all lose. We want to be open on the inside and should be open on the outside too,î he said of the ìalmost see-through building,î adding, ìOf course, we will make special arrangements, adaptations to secure the building, and it helps that we are on a cul de sac. ìThe transparency of the building will reflect Swedenís desire for openness and dialogue in the most important capital in the world. We want our embassy to send a signal of openness,î Eliasson said. ìIt will light up like a beacon, like a lighthouse.î Gail Scott is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and author of ìDiplomatic Dance: The New Embassy Life in America.î