Cool reception for 'ice cube'

Architects love a good row. But it is unlikely that the new US embassy in Nine Elms will be reshaped by the views of Richard Rogers - or even the less eminent critics who have snootily dismissed the frosted cube perched in a saucer of water.

In a basement room at the Building Centre in Store Street, ambassador Louis B Susman made it plain yesterday that the decision was final.

Upstairs all four final designs are on show until 20 March. Go and have a look. To the untrained eye, the 56-metre cube beats the triangular design of Pie Cobb by a short head. The 12-storey block looks a lot better than the tower and huddled sub-buildings of Richard Meier. Lord Rogers thinks the Morphosis design by Thom Mayne looks great. To others it looks crooked and complicated.

But it probably doesn't matter what anyone but the Americans think now. There will be a lot of huffing and puffing for a week or so. Then the row will die down, and in 2017 a cube of largely unchanged shape will emerge.

Peter Bill is a former editor of Estates Gazette