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U.S. Embassy - Athens, Greece

The U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece was designed by Walter Gropius, and inaugurated on July 4, 1961. Gropius' famous design was in the characteristic Bauhaus form, inspired by the architecture of the Parthenon. The building is a national landmark and is listed on the Secretary of State’s Register of Culturally Significant Property. The embassy annex building opened in 2007 and the architect was KMW Architecture. Their design was inspired by the original Gropius stylobate scheme and respects the embassy’s simplicity of form.

Photo Courtesy Ann Beha Architects

Artist Commission

Michael Singer

In 2006 FAPE commissioned Michael Singer to create a sculptural garden for the entrance to the new embassy annex building in Athens. The work is a 70-foot-long marble, metal and pre-cast concrete platform-like structure emerging from below grade at one end and rising three feet from the ground level at the other end. The sculpture was installed by Robert Hannum of Arts Management Services LLC.

The sculpture’s materials and textures reference archeological discoveries related to Greek culture. The sloping platform is planted and water flows over its surfaces. It is highly visible throughout the embassy compound and includes seating. It is installed in a grid of olive trees and lavender hedges. Singer’s work was unveiled at the building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 9, 2007.

Gift of the artist

“The courtyard garden and sculpture I made for the U.S. Embassy Annex Building in Athens, I believe, represents the true essence of FAPE’s work, which is to spark cross-cultural conversation through art and architecture. The sculpture’s materials and textures all reference archeological discoveries related to Greece and Greek culture. It continues to be a work of art that makes me proud on many levels.”
— MICHAEL SINGER

Michael Singer
Courtyard Garden and Sculpture
2007
Marble, metal and pre-cast concrete, 70 feet long x 3 feet high

 
 
 
 

Artist Commission

Stephen Antonakos

In 2016 Naomi S. Antonakos donated a portfolio of 275 travel collages by her late husband, Stephen Antonakos. Whenever he traveled—across Europe, North and South America, and Japan—Antonakos would pick up and keep whatever caught his eye—a postage stamp, a tiny shampoo bottle from a hotel, a few sticks and stones in nature. He said that he didn’t find them, but that they found him. Throughout his many visits to cities and the countryside all over Greece, Antonakos kept each day’s finds in an envelope he marked with that date, and back in the studio he composed them in relation to each other and to their overall site. The work was installed in the Ambassador's Suite of the new embassy building in September 2023.

Gift of Naomi S. Antonakos with additional funding provided by

Stephen Antonakos

275 Untitled Greek Travel Collages

December 2, 1988-July 16, 2000

Mixed media from various locations in Greece, Various sizes: 8 x 8 inches to 19 ½ x 15 ½ inches

 

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U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece
91 Vasilissis Sophias Avenue
10160 Athens, Greece

Visit embassy website