The State Dept. has awarded BL Harbert International LLC, Birmingham, Ala., a $153.5-million design-build contract to renovate the U.S. embassy in Amman, Jordan.
The State Dept.’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, or OBO, said it also has selected Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as design architect for a new U.S. embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Ennead Architects to design an embassy project in Ankara, Turkey. Both firms are headquartered in New York City.
In announcing the Amman award on Aug. 7, OBO noted that EYP Architecture & Engineering, Albany, N.Y., is the project’s design architect and Page, Arlington, Va., is the architect of record.
OBO said it anticipates completing the Amman project in fiscal year 2018.
Charles A. Bohn, president of BL Harbert International’s international group, said in an Aug. 11 statement, “The importance of this project to the U.S. diplomatic mission has been amplified due to the current political situation in the region.”
The company said that the project includes a new office annex, security upgrades to the chancery and life-safety and infrastructure improvements.
In announcing the design firms' selections on Aug. 15, OBO said it anticipates making a design-build award for the Colombo project in fiscal 2015 and awarding the construction contract for the Ankara project in fiscal 2016.
Both projects include chanceries, U.S. Marine Corps housing and other facilities.
At present, the State Dept. has 28 diplomatic projects under construction or in design. That total excludes the Ankara and Colombo projects.
A State Dept. spokesperson said that the two design firms were chosen through an indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract for architectural-engineering services, and thus the process did not involve short lists.
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