National Affairs: NEW FACE FOR AMERICA ABROAD

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ONE dismal night just before the turn of the century, so the story goes, a London bobby approached an American leaning wearily against a lamppost, summarily ordered him along home. "Home! Home!'' came the answer in a twanging New England accent. "I have no home. I am the American ambassador."

Like any U.S. ambassador in those days, Joseph Hodges Choate had been sent to the Court of St. James's with little more than his credentials and traveling expenses, was left to himself to find some house that would serve as both home and embassy. It was not until 1911 that the U.S. State Department made any concerted effort to acquire buildings abroad, and not until after World War II did Congress decide that the nation's brugeoning responsibilities demanded buildings to match.

Today, the new diplomatic face the U.S. presents to foreign capitals is one Americans can be proud of. In the past six years, the U.S. has completed 18 new embassies, 14 new consulates from Accra to Caracas to Kobe. As a result of a bold decision made in 1954, they are some of the handsomest, most original modern structures anywhere.

Credit for the decision goes to the State Department's Office of Foreign Buildings, headed by long-term Career Officer William P. Hughes. He concluded that neither Renaissance palaces (which too much recalled the past) nor glass boxes (which often clashed with traditional architecture, raised more hackles than they soothed) adequately represented the U.S. today. An advisory group of top architects was set up, and some 50 outstanding architects were called on for plans.

At Home Abroad. Keynote of the new program was that the building should be modern but related to the culture and style of the country in which it was to be built. Designers were expected to travel to the sites, familiarize themselves with the climate and customs, local construction methods and materials. The results were dramatic. Under the impact of foreign cultures, many architects were inspired to new departures from modern architecture's dogmatic restraints, evolved a host of lively new concepts to create buildings that are graciously at home in the community, friendly and yet dignified.

As with any bold architectural venture, the results have often met with a mixed critical reaction. Eero Saarinen's Oslo embassy (opposite) has been warmly praised, while his nearly completed London embassy, which combines traditional Portland stone with straw-colored aluminum trim, has been sharply taken to task for being too brash and bright. In New Delhi, Edward D. Stone adopted the form of an Indian temple and wrapped it with a lacy grille that lights up like a jewel box at night. The New Delhi embassy has been so widely admired that it now stays open on Sundays to accommodate the swarms of Indian visitors, while its dramatic use of the grille has brought this device, long a traditional part of Hindu temples, back into high architectural fashion.