Embassy of Qatar in Washington
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The Embassy of the State of Qatar in Washington houses Qatar's diplomatic mission to the United States. The chancery is located at 2555 M Street NW on the western edge of the West End near the Georgetown neighbourhood.
Until 2005, the embassy was located in an office building at 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. For many years the embassy consisted of only two diplomats and a handful of staffers. In recent years, however, Qatar has been working to make itself a banking, business, and tourism centre and this created a need for a larger embassy. So too did the growing strategic partnership between Qatar and the U.S. that has seen large numbers of American forces based in the country. In 2001, Qatar purchased the current building for $13.6 million from Castleton Holdings. The building had previously held law offices. The current ambassador is Mr. Nasser bin Hamad M. Al Khalifa
The State of Qatar retained the professional services of The Georgetown Design Group, Inc. (GDG) to fully renovate the building. In addition to numerous interior enhancements and security features, the new exterior incorporates a number of Arabic design motifs. During the last stages of the design, some project management issues developed between the project architect, Dr. Mokhless Al-Hariri, AIA, and the Qatar Islamic Bank, who at the time was the project's financeer. Once all the necessary District of Columbia reviews were completed, and after the building permits were obtained by GDG, the Qatar Islamic Bank attempted to switch architects. The issue was finally settled out of court to the satisfaction of GDG. As a result, the original design developed by Mokhless Al-Hariri was generally implemented in accordance with the plans issued by GDG. Additional design input can also be credited to Barbara Mullnex. The Embassy moved to its new building in early 2005.
