Dome

Entrance lobby area with curved roof and side walls, looking west down E. 45th St.; The new building housing the United States Misson to the United Nations was dedicated on March 29, 2011. The lead architect was Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects who died in 2009, approximately two years before the structure was completed (the design was completed in 2002). The site is located opposite the United Nations General Assembly Building on First Avenue and 45th Street in New York City. The building provides office, meeting and reception spaces for the U.S. Mission, the United States Information Agency, and the Office of Foreign Missions within a 22-story structure which is designed in response to stringent blast and security criteria. This project was one of the first to give form to the standards adopted after the 1998 African embassy bombings, and was commissioned in 1998. There are no windows in the first seven floors of the tower. Special facilities for press conferences and reception functions are provided in the base and at the top of the building. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/9/2012)