The Embassy of the United States of America in Accra is the diplomatic mission of the United States in Ghana. It is the focal point for events relating to the United States held in Ghana.[1][2]
Leadership
Ambassador is in charge of the Embassy. Virginia E. Palmer is the current Ambassador of the United States to Ghana.[3]
The initial embassy building was designed by Harry Weese. Described as a "glass box raised on stilts and wrapped in wooden shutters", Weese claimed to have been inspired by "towering African anthills and[...]an inverted cheiftain's hut", comments which were later criticized as reductive and possibly a false stretch to portray the building as grounded in local tradition.[4]
In 1998, the embassy moved to a temporary building due to security concerns, with the building later being used by the Ghanaian Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs.[6] A new embassy compound that adheres to the Standard Embassy Design guidelines, implemented after 9/11 to increase the security of diplomatic missions, was completed in 2007 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The former building was slated to become a women's center, but reportedly became vacant and dilapidated.[7]
A "fake embassy" was reportedly active for around ten years until its shutdown in 2016, posing as the actual American embassy (and possibly the Dutch embassy) and issuing false visas for thousands of dollars, with its closure gaining worldwide attention;[8][9] however, an investigation by The Guardian found the reports to be exaggerated, stating that it was based on faulty intelligence from investigations into actual visa fraud schemes and that certain claims, such as the use of an American flag and portraits of US presidents at the premises, were not true.[10]
Loeffler, Jane C. (2011). The architecture of diplomacy : building America's embassies (2nd ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural. ISBN978-1-56898-984-6. OCLC700033660.
‡ Missions which are located in countries or cities that may be considered a part of more than one continent
1 Consulates-General which function as an embassy (ie. consul reports to State Department, not the respective country's ambassador)
2 The American Institute in Taiwan is ostensibly a public, non-profit organization to promote US-Taiwanese relations, but through State Department staffing & assistance, functions as an informal US diplomatic mission.
