America's new $1billion embassy in London is the world’s most expensive

The embassy, being built in the Nine Elms area of London, is already the world’s costliest embassy - costs have spiraled upwards of $1 billion - and it's well past its due date
The 100 foot, half moon strip of water in front of the building is meant to be able to withstand any type of attack although US officials have euphemistically called it a ‘water feature’.

After the project was announced in 2008, critics slammed the record construction costs, wavy glass cube design and moat entrance, while nearby residents expressed fears that their homes would become inadvertent terrorist targets. 

But the current US Embassy, in Grosvenor Square, is too small and too old-fashioned as it was built in the 1950s, and fraught with security issues for the modern world.

The new high-tech Embassy will have a bomb-proof exterior and anti-ram barriers - which are just being built judging from our pictures - but its designer Kieran Timberlake didn’t want to put in the usual security measures such as high security walls and a defensive perimeter.