Milan, Italy

“Milan’s new U.S. Consulate General will add a wonderful new chapter to a historic campus that had once been a special gathering place for Milan’s sporting community,” states Henry V. Jardine, Acting Director, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations.

“Looking to the future, we know the campus will again become a cultural landmark for Milan-— with art exhibitions in the public Liberty Building and open space in the Liberty Plaza—and will support the region with improved consular services and expanded representational spaces.” 

“This unique campus will truly represent the full scope of our bilateral relationship, applying the best of both nations’ design and construction methods to promote our common values and continued friendship” 

SHoP Architects’ renovation and restoration of the U.S. Consulate General in Milan for the U.S. Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) revives the site’s architectural and historic legacy as a secure, functional, and resilient project—in tribute to the close collaboration of American and Italian people. 

Three miles northwest of the city center, this once-dynamic hub of community stands decades later as an ideal location for connecting two countries and cultures, with the shared goal of bringing people together once again in the spirit of inspiration, communication, and collaboration. 

The approximately 10-acre renovated campus will provide a modern platform for U.S. diplomacy in Milan and across northern Italy.

In addition to the new Consulate building, the project includes the restoration of the historic Liberty Building on the Consulate site and the reconstruction of a pavilion on the parade ground. 

Across from the restored Palazzo Liberty and covered walkway, SHoP will incorporate a new multistorey cubic office building into the campus.

Caddell Construction Company LCC. of Montgomery, Alabama is the contractor.

For this project, SHoP has developed a cohesive plan for the main buildings and grounds that responds to the historic landmarks on the site—a former sporting club—while addressing the complex programmatic requirements of the contemporary diplomatic facility.

The site improvements will include large areas of open space and a restoration of the garden at the forecourt of the Liberty Building. 

This unique campus will allow for greater engagement within the city and its environs. 

The site reflects its history as a communal space, drawing people in and promoting a natural flow of movement centered around encouraging social engagement and inclusion. 

The triangular Liberty Plaza features a welcoming public garden that orients visitors to the Liberty Building. 

Once through the arches of the Liberty Building, the site progresses to the nearly 80,000-square-foot Parade Ground —historically the main gathering place for events — with the reconstructed Pavilion in front of the chancery building. 

The chancery is formed of two volumes: a five-story tower atop a plinth. For anyone approaching, the consular garden, the historic Pavilion and Parade Ground offer an immediate sense of context for the new building, while leading them to the building’s entrance.

Overall, the design celebrates the materiality of Italian architecture, using a mix of modern and historic methods and materials. 

The façade is an intricate framework of digitally processed and -fabricated stone panels in a warm cream color, a reference to the buildings at the historic center and piazzas of Milan and other Italian cities. 

The panels gradate from transparent to solid, with a depth of texture that is deepest at the base and recedes as it climbs the façade. 

The effect evokes a rusticated, relatively rougher-surfaced base that transforms to a precise edge that meets the sky. 

The coloring picks up the earthy hues of the terracotta roofs and wood columns of the Pavilion and the Liberty Building. 

The overall effect is timeless, presenting a functional, efficient face that references the classical elements around it.

Inside, a variety of effective working and meeting spaces present a similar mix of past inspiration and present-day innovation. 

The materials are inherently Milanese, inspired by traditional materials that are reimagined with new patterns and assembly. 

A reception area beyond the main lobby features a milled stone counter with a unique multicolor marble that contrasts and complements the wall panels, which in turn echo the façade panels. 

Adjacent to reception is a large, double-curved stairwell that sweeps and tapers as it moves up. 

Designed as the main circulation method, it is a statement in quality of craft, refined detail, and thoughtful proportion that draws people to the gallery above, a triple-height space with panoramic site views. 

The consular waiting area continues the use of large-format marble panels and a rich wood plank ceiling that references the historic canopies outside. 

Visitors are welcomed into consular booths that instill a sense of security and privacy, lined in deep green, sound-absorbing soft velvet ribbed panels with Italian green marble wainscotting.

A true 21st-Century center for practicing American diplomacy, the new Consulate General campus is an expression of globally influenced design that celebrates and advances local tradition. 

It will serve as an enduring testament to cross-cultural collaboration—not only between two countries but also to honor all of the places where exceptional individuals met throughout history and will continue to meet into the future.

With the careful coordination of design, engineering, and the geothermal system, almost zero heating energy from hydrocarbon fuels will be required. 

The ground-source system provides heating and cooling services, with processed water stored for site irrigation or reinjected into the groundwater aquifer. 

This geothermal system will be “open loop,” as is the practice in Milan but a first for OBO. 

A central plant heating/cooling system is provided with a modular water-source heat pump that utilizes the open-loop geothermal wells. 

The modular water-source heat pump provides simultaneous heating and cooling, utilizing the heat rejected from the cooling process to generate hot water. 

The hot water produced is utilized for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) hot water and for preheating for the domestic hot water system, which also incorporates water-source heat pumps at each building.

The permanent art collection, curated by OBO’s Office of Art in Embassies, will include art in a variety of media, including painting, photography, beadwork, and sculpture by both U.S. and Italian artists. 

The collection will seek to create a dialogue of shared values between the people of our two countries. 

Highlights will include two site-specific sculptures: an outdoor work by Beverly Pepper, an acclaimed American artist and pioneering figure in monumental metal sculpture, and an interior sculpture by the Haas Brothers, who work at the nexus of art and design.

Project: U.S. Consulate General in Milan
Architects: SHoP Architects 
General Contractor: Caddell Construction Company LCC.
Client: U.S. Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO)