Below is a day-by-day diary from a recent trip to Baghdad undertaken by Yves Springuel, AIA, a Principal in our Washington DC office, Mancini•Duffy Winstanley. Yves took the trip on behalf of our client, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and AECOM and the Iraqi Council of Representatives, in order to interview users, conduct a visioning session, and survey the Parliament building, which will be renovated to house the Iraqi Center for Parliamentary Development.
Tuesday, 6/22, 7:00 PM local, Noon EST
This has already been an eye-opening adventure! And with a bit of luck and much hard work, it’ll be a great project. I landed this morning and, after many delays, including combat zone ones, arrived safe and healthy this afternoon at the housing and office compound in Baghdad.
My communications will be sporadic and limited: both because I won’t be adding any value by telling you everything at this time and due to technical difficulties—already the power has gone out twice. The limited distribution of this communication is to reassure my firm that I am fine, to confirm that the systems we set up are working, and to provide project information.
Baghdad remains a city torn asunder. However, the airport could have been anywhere. The world’s most sophisticated technology landed on a perfect runway, taxied, and parked far from a gate. A stifling heat (109 F) slammed us on our walk to the terminal, a place of incomprehensible paperwork that I navigated in about two hours. It cost us $2.00 to replace my visa.
I met up with the head of the South African team that provides our security, was instructed on the wearing of the flak jacket and helmet, and then was taken as part of a three-car motorcade—all for me—in a bulletproof GMC SUV out of the secure perimeter of the airport. The highway to the International Zone is lined with Jersey barriers 12 feet tall or more; you glimpse what is beyond as you are treated to the stories of the security staff and their passengers’ adventures…
We went through five checkpoints, notable as the only public place I saw American military (in a convoy of their own) in the parts of the Green Zone still active, which is where the parliament is located. There we had two spare hours, since the rest of our convoy was finishing a meeting. We touristed! I have a picture of me under the old regime’s crossed swords, and I heard my first Call to Prayer. The walls reminded me not in the least of the ones we all know so well in old Europe; instead they’re all the harsh technology of modern precast, and set at the road’s edge. And yet, all the same, glimpses to something wonderful are to be had over them.
After connecting with the rest of our convoy coming from the parliament, we motored over the Tigris, the first place I got a truly long view of the city. And what a city! While dirty and damaged, the street life is just as real as anywhere you have been. Markets, advertising, construction, children darting out, traffic, police (and soldiers), crowded side streets—you name it, I glimpsed it.
Now in the compound, after my first briefing, I go to dinner. Tomorrow I survey the building, Thursday interview the Senior Staff of the Parliament. We present our findings and solution on Monday. We have a lot of work to do!
It’s great to be an architect.
Wednesday, 6/23, 8:00 PM local, 1:00 PM EST
Tonight’s note will be short—jet lag is catching up!
One hundred and four degrees, not quite a sandstorm I’m told, more like an atmosphere where the humidity we all know in DC is replaced by a sandy dust carried on the breeze. And of course my principal activity was the most physical of the entire deployment: the building survey! It’s one of the key things we had to accomplish here, and it went well. Tomorrow will be the visioning and requirements interviews.
In the building, no A/C or air movement, but sufficient light to work. The entry foyer has something of the wedding pavilion scene from the Godfather to it. The old National Assembly Hall has sufficient geometric order and restraint to be called a national treasure. And we start with good bones for our project: the office parts are a calm and white interior, though the quarter inch of dust everywhere is a novelty! Outside the building we were fortunately inside the T-walls of its compound; so we did not have to wear our personal protection.
I was also treated to a convoy search. Six fully armed Afrikaners looking out for just you make that a good story, although better told in person…
Still the jet lag is an excuse; I’m pooped—good night.
Thursday, 6/24, 11:00 PM local, 4:00 PM EST
Very busy day conducting the interviews at the Council of Representatives.
You may have seen the building in the news. It’s the old convention center, a horizontal slat/vertical silo, bunker-looking mid-rise. It was the American HQ before the surge. I might best describe it as a fully occupied construction site, with every resident a designer, no superintendent, no completed project or task, and not a day laborer nor dumpster to be found.
Friday 6/25, 11:00 PM local, 4:00 PM EST
It’s the first day that I did not leave the compound, and the city is certainly quieter on this, their holy day, punctuated by the Call to Prayer. I spent the day developing our design presentation, and conducted a 15-minute tourist visit of my surroundings.
We occupy four city blocks bound by a few two-story houses, and buildings up to six stories tall. Two or three are hotels or apartment buildings, the others office buildings. All seem occupied by foreigners (that’s me), and there are barracks for our guard force and the office of the private contractors and classrooms providing the English teachers’ classrooms. The perimeter is closed by the T-walls. The four streets leading in are blocked by a rabbit warren and double gates, and each is manned by several guards. There are pillboxes on all the heights and most every building. Downtown is at the intersection of two main streets; our motor pool of a dozen armored SUVs has this prominent address. It is completely forgettable except for the racket of at least 17 tractor-trailer size generator sets, most of which restart at every blackout. If you are following the news, you know that these are incessant.
There are about 40 of us in the compound this week, and 200 Afrikaners and Gurkhas assuring our security and transport. During the work week, we’re augmented by a local office and labor force, and up to 25 students. Those office folks have been my best contact and given me the most wonderful perspective on this, the cradle of civilization.
The dust subsided today, but I think the haze on everything is a permanent fixture in all seasons. There is no PX; however, the owner of the souvenir gift shop in the lobby of our hotel impatiently awaits my presence. Perhaps I will get a bargain….
Sunday, 6/27, 10:00 PM local, 3:00 PM EST
We presented to the Senior Staff of the Parliament, who approved our concept. Tomorrow we present to the Center’s governing board and that should do it—then it’s home to write the report and produce a scope set of drawings. I discovered that working like this is successful, if not easy.
I also think I discovered that much of the local challenge is because of the security, not in spite of it. For example, I spent two hours this morning waiting in the sun outside the Parliament because my paperwork wasn’t there.
On the way back, the others talked our ride into stopping at the liquor store. We went down a bumpy dirt road to a sweets and ice-cream shop, behind which were three serious retail establishments for the necessities of our western world. Just like high school! And a bargain to boot. Too bad that I have the confiscation line to go though before I come home.
And now back in Compound, the A/C has finally completely given out. Anybody want to trade places?
Tuesday, 6/22, 7:00 PM local, Noon EST
This has already been an eye-opening adventure! And with a bit of luck and much hard work, it’ll be a great project. I landed this morning and, after many delays, including combat zone ones, arrived safe and healthy this afternoon at the housing and office compound in Baghdad.
My communications will be sporadic and limited: both because I won’t be adding any value by telling you everything at this time and due to technical difficulties—already the power has gone out twice. The limited distribution of this communication is to reassure my firm that I am fine, to confirm that the systems we set up are working, and to provide project information.
Baghdad remains a city torn asunder. However, the airport could have been anywhere. The world’s most sophisticated technology landed on a perfect runway, taxied, and parked far from a gate. A stifling heat (109 F) slammed us on our walk to the terminal, a place of incomprehensible paperwork that I navigated in about two hours. It cost us $2.00 to replace my visa.
I met up with the head of the South African team that provides our security, was instructed on the wearing of the flak jacket and helmet, and then was taken as part of a three-car motorcade—all for me—in a bulletproof GMC SUV out of the secure perimeter of the airport. The highway to the International Zone is lined with Jersey barriers 12 feet tall or more; you glimpse what is beyond as you are treated to the stories of the security staff and their passengers’ adventures…
We went through five checkpoints, notable as the only public place I saw American military (in a convoy of their own) in the parts of the Green Zone still active, which is where the parliament is located. There we had two spare hours, since the rest of our convoy was finishing a meeting. We touristed! I have a picture of me under the old regime’s crossed swords, and I heard my first Call to Prayer. The walls reminded me not in the least of the ones we all know so well in old Europe; instead they’re all the harsh technology of modern precast, and set at the road’s edge. And yet, all the same, glimpses to something wonderful are to be had over them.
After connecting with the rest of our convoy coming from the parliament, we motored over the Tigris, the first place I got a truly long view of the city. And what a city! While dirty and damaged, the street life is just as real as anywhere you have been. Markets, advertising, construction, children darting out, traffic, police (and soldiers), crowded side streets—you name it, I glimpsed it.
Now in the compound, after my first briefing, I go to dinner. Tomorrow I survey the building, Thursday interview the Senior Staff of the Parliament. We present our findings and solution on Monday. We have a lot of work to do!
It’s great to be an architect.
Wednesday, 6/23, 8:00 PM local, 1:00 PM EST
Tonight’s note will be short—jet lag is catching up!
One hundred and four degrees, not quite a sandstorm I’m told, more like an atmosphere where the humidity we all know in DC is replaced by a sandy dust carried on the breeze. And of course my principal activity was the most physical of the entire deployment: the building survey! It’s one of the key things we had to accomplish here, and it went well. Tomorrow will be the visioning and requirements interviews.
In the building, no A/C or air movement, but sufficient light to work. The entry foyer has something of the wedding pavilion scene from the Godfather to it. The old National Assembly Hall has sufficient geometric order and restraint to be called a national treasure. And we start with good bones for our project: the office parts are a calm and white interior, though the quarter inch of dust everywhere is a novelty! Outside the building we were fortunately inside the T-walls of its compound; so we did not have to wear our personal protection.
I was also treated to a convoy search. Six fully armed Afrikaners looking out for just you make that a good story, although better told in person…
Still the jet lag is an excuse; I’m pooped—good night.
Thursday, 6/24, 11:00 PM local, 4:00 PM EST
Very busy day conducting the interviews at the Council of Representatives.
You may have seen the building in the news. It’s the old convention center, a horizontal slat/vertical silo, bunker-looking mid-rise. It was the American HQ before the surge. I might best describe it as a fully occupied construction site, with every resident a designer, no superintendent, no completed project or task, and not a day laborer nor dumpster to be found.
Friday 6/25, 11:00 PM local, 4:00 PM EST
It’s the first day that I did not leave the compound, and the city is certainly quieter on this, their holy day, punctuated by the Call to Prayer. I spent the day developing our design presentation, and conducted a 15-minute tourist visit of my surroundings.
We occupy four city blocks bound by a few two-story houses, and buildings up to six stories tall. Two or three are hotels or apartment buildings, the others office buildings. All seem occupied by foreigners (that’s me), and there are barracks for our guard force and the office of the private contractors and classrooms providing the English teachers’ classrooms. The perimeter is closed by the T-walls. The four streets leading in are blocked by a rabbit warren and double gates, and each is manned by several guards. There are pillboxes on all the heights and most every building. Downtown is at the intersection of two main streets; our motor pool of a dozen armored SUVs has this prominent address. It is completely forgettable except for the racket of at least 17 tractor-trailer size generator sets, most of which restart at every blackout. If you are following the news, you know that these are incessant.
There are about 40 of us in the compound this week, and 200 Afrikaners and Gurkhas assuring our security and transport. During the work week, we’re augmented by a local office and labor force, and up to 25 students. Those office folks have been my best contact and given me the most wonderful perspective on this, the cradle of civilization.
The dust subsided today, but I think the haze on everything is a permanent fixture in all seasons. There is no PX; however, the owner of the souvenir gift shop in the lobby of our hotel impatiently awaits my presence. Perhaps I will get a bargain….
Sunday, 6/27, 10:00 PM local, 3:00 PM EST
We presented to the Senior Staff of the Parliament, who approved our concept. Tomorrow we present to the Center’s governing board and that should do it—then it’s home to write the report and produce a scope set of drawings. I discovered that working like this is successful, if not easy.
I also think I discovered that much of the local challenge is because of the security, not in spite of it. For example, I spent two hours this morning waiting in the sun outside the Parliament because my paperwork wasn’t there.
On the way back, the others talked our ride into stopping at the liquor store. We went down a bumpy dirt road to a sweets and ice-cream shop, behind which were three serious retail establishments for the necessities of our western world. Just like high school! And a bargain to boot. Too bad that I have the confiscation line to go though before I come home.
And now back in Compound, the A/C has finally completely given out. Anybody want to trade places?
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