New U.S. Embassy Plans Unveiled in Berlin, Finally

After years of delays, US Ambassador Daniel Coats showed off the construction plans for the new U.S. Embassy near the Brandenburg Gate on Thursday. Construction of the four-story, high-security building, directly north of the famous Berlin landmark, will begin this coming October and is expected to last until 2008, Coats said. Since talks of relocating the United States embassy back to its historic pre-WWII location began, six U.S. ambassadors have come and gone. Berlin construction authorities objected after embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in the late 1990s prompted Washington to demand a 30-meter (98-foot) security zone around the future embassy. The two sides compromised on a 25-meter zone and Berlin promised to reroute a busy east-west street connection for the new building. The embassy is estimated at costing up to $140 million (€117 million).