David Chipperfield plans to convert US Embassy into Mayfair hotel

David Chipperfield beats Foster and KPF to convert Eero Saarinen-designed US Embassy in London to hotel.

Rendering, access to new Hotel Mayfair by David Chipperfield Architects.

David Chipperfield Architects has been officially selected to convert the US Embassy near London's Grosvenor Square into a "world-class" 137-room hotel, after the building's current occupants relocate.

With the embassy set to move to a new home in Nine Elms, the Chancery Building at 30 Grosvenor Square will be completely transformed into a hotel with five restaurants, six shops, a spa and a ballroom.

David Chipperfield Architects was appointed to the project by developer Qatari Diar, from a shortlist that reportedly included Foster + Partners and KPF.

"Our design proposals protect and respect the significant architectural and structural characteristics of Eero Saarinen's design, with a focus on restoring and enhancing this unique building to secure its long-term future at the heart of Mayfair, we have studied the building's design and its history as well as its surroundings to deliver an architecturally and socially coherent proposal, which will transform this purpose-built embassy into a world-class hotel." said David Chipperfield.

Completed in 1960, the Chancery Building was Britain's first purpose-built embassy. Saarinen worked on the building while he was designing the JFK airport terminal in New York, which is also now being converted into a hotel.

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Outside rendering, new Hotel Mayfair by David Chipperfield Architects.

The Chancery Building at 30 Grosvenor Square was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in the 1950s.

Philadelphia architect KieranTimberlake designed the new US embassy, which is nearing completion in Nine Elms.

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David Chipperfield

Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

Published on: April 7, 2016

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