Canberra embassy update

Last month, reader Will Grant wrote to me in response to a post about Canberra's embassies. Will said, 'I've heard that having embassies in the national style was a specific request of the Australian Government (or possibly the National Capital Authority's predecessors) in the early Canberra years.'

After stumbling onto the National Capital Authority's website today, I see that Will is almost right:

The Embassy of the United Sates was the first embassy built in Canberra and the first to introduce the notion of design characteristics representative of the culture of each mission's home country. Many other missions have followed suit - India, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt and Papua New Guinea.

The National Capital Authority encourages foreign governments to design their missions to reflect their country's national architectural style. This practice is quite unique and allows the embassy to be easily identified by visitors to the national capital.