[the US mission]

Topic: United Nations

Across the street from the Korean Mission, where I work, is (or rather, was) the United States Mission. I remember noticing it when I first came to work here last summer: a building clad in a complicated concrete latticework that was probably forward-thinking in the 1950s, but that looked like it had been neglected ever since. It seemed to express our attitude toward the UN itself: excited at first, then contemptuous and tight-fisted.

Now that building is being torn down, to be replaced with a new structure on the same spot. It’s been an ongoing project across the street, sometimes fascinating to watch, occasionally terrifying, as when the big flatbed trucks arrived to offload gigantic dumpsters, which came crashing onto the street and stopped rolling just inches from a parked pickup truck.

I’m very much hoping that because the site was already built, they won’t need to do any pile driving. That would suck.