The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (S/OBO) is an agency of the United States Department of State charged with constructing, purchasing, and maintaining buildings and real estate in other countries. It is responsible for building and maintaining U.S. diplomatic mission facilities, including embassies and consulate buildings.
The organization was founded as the Office of Foreign Building Operations (FBO). In the 1950s, it achieved a high profile by hiring well-known modernist architects like Ralph Rapson, Harrison & Abramovitz, and Gordon Bunshaft. In the wake of the 1983 United States Embassy bombing in Beirut and the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, its focus has shifted from aesthetics to security.
In 2001 the Bureau was given its current name when it was upgraded to Bureau level within the Department.
As of 2011, the Bureau's director is Adam E. Namm.
Famous quotes containing the words bureau of, bureau and/or operations:
“We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.”
—native American belief, quoted by D. Jenness in “The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River,” Bulletin no. 133, Bureau of American Ethnology (1943)
“We know what the animals do, what are the needs of the beaver, the bear, the salmon, and other creatures, because long ago men married them and acquired this knowledge from their animal wives. Today the priests say we lie, but we know better.”
—native American belief, quoted by D. Jenness in “The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River,” Bulletin no. 133, Bureau of American Ethnology (1943)
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)