The U.S. Embassy Compound in Rabat, Morocco serves as a symbol of the continuing partnership between nations. Situated on an eight-acre site, approximately three miles from the City Center, the multi-building compound provides a safe, secure and modern workplace for Embassy staff.

The compound includes a Chancery Building, two underground parking garages and a Marine Security Guard Residence and a terrace/basketball court. The 215,000-square-foot, three-story Chancery Building is unique because it also contains the Marine Security Guard Residence and the utility/support annex functions, while also providing diplomatic office space, making it a mixed-use building on the compound.  Because of strict height limitations, the Chancery Building is partially underground, with all three levels exposed on the North Elevation, but only the top level is exposed on the South Elevation.

Because of the challenge of working with a diverse project team, comprised of 17 different nationalities, with little to no construction experience, the BLHI field engineering staff developed coordination drawings to break down design drawings into detailed field installation drawings for all systems. This included: field generated reinforcing shop drawings and rebar detailing; under-slab and in-slab MEP coordination drawings; above-ceiling coordination drawings with overlaid mechanical, electrical, and architectural items; partition layout and framing plans; reflected ceiling plans; and any other areas that needed intensive coordination or detailing.  These drawings created the backbone of the Rabat NEC project’s as-built drawings due to directly referencing them with the issued for construction CAD files, which decreased time requirements for close-out documentation.

The original design for the project included extruded aluminum coping around all parapets at all buildings for the roofing system termination. Through a cost analysis and to assist with LEED regional material credits, BLHI was able to change to a local stone coping instead of the aluminum.  This change saved on manufacturing lead times, shipping, potential for damage, and installation time.  The stone coping was quarried, cut, and polished within 100-miles of the project site, which made the material readily available, was easier to work with due to familiarity of the material with the local installers, and was an upgrade to the project in terms of aesthetics.  Through these and other initiatives, the project achieved LEED Gold certification.