Embassy Row on the Nile

On paper, the design seems perfectly fine, even desirable.

To accommodate the growing number of U.S. diplomats and advisers arriving in Egypt, construction will begin next year in downtown Cairo on a gleaming new embassy, complete with sweeping drive and reflecting pool. Although the State Department has not yet approved a final design, the main building will be at least 15 stories tall. The $43 million structure will replace the present embassy, a sprawling, overcrowded hodgepodge of half a dozen buildings.

The embassy staff that numbered 25 in 1975 now stands at 215 Americans, plus 315 local employees. But at a time when the fortress-like U.S. embassy compound in Tehran remains in the hands of Iranian militants, and the American missions in Islamabad and Tripoli are still scarred from last year's assaults, many staffers in Cairo question the wisdom of constructing an opulent symbol that could easily turn into a lightning rod for anti-American protests. Top aides to Ambassador Alfred Atherton argue that the building would represent a "blatant political statement," and some have already dubbed the proposed compound Tehran Two.

The State Department contends that the high-rise skyscraper, designed by a Washington architectural firm, Metcalf & Eddy, would serve as a more secure garrison in case of attack than the suggested alternative of clustered bungalows. Huffed one official at State, defending the project: "No one in Cairo has raised a palm about its potential hazards."

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