News / National
Zimbabwe starts rebuilding UN official residence destroyed by fire in the US
14 Aug 2022 at 07:22hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe government is planning to rebuild its official residence in Rye, to be used by the head of its United Nations Mission.
The previous home was lost in a multi-alarm fire in the early hours of Saturday, September 14th, 2019.
Harare tendered expressions of interest in July related to the construction of the official residence in Rye as well as the demolition and construction of a new chancery in Manhattan. It is expected a single architectural consultant will be hired for both the residence and the chancery.
The official residence will be rebuilt at the 167 Grandview Avenue site (on the corner of High Street), still owned by the Government of Zimbabwe. After the 2019 fire, the home was demolished to the ground level and the pool was filled in.
Responding to questions by newzimbabwe.com over the development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "This is not just about our mission in New York only.
"We have also construction works going on at our embassy in Washington. We are also refurbishing our chanceries and residences in a number of countries which include; South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, the UK, Germany and Malawi.
"We are pleased that we have already finished refurbishing our chancery in Malawi. We are also refurbishing our guest houses in Harare."
Bidding and other public documents show Zimbabwe is looking for an extensive official residence on the 1.02 acre lot. It references looking at a residence approaching the prior one–6,950 square feet on three floors with ten bedrooms, a three car garage, pool and event space.
The current bidding on the official residence is for the design and construction supervision only. Zimbabwe has extended the original bidding response time by three weeks until August 22, 2022.
The previous home was lost in a multi-alarm fire in the early hours of Saturday, September 14th, 2019.
Harare tendered expressions of interest in July related to the construction of the official residence in Rye as well as the demolition and construction of a new chancery in Manhattan. It is expected a single architectural consultant will be hired for both the residence and the chancery.
The official residence will be rebuilt at the 167 Grandview Avenue site (on the corner of High Street), still owned by the Government of Zimbabwe. After the 2019 fire, the home was demolished to the ground level and the pool was filled in.
"We have also construction works going on at our embassy in Washington. We are also refurbishing our chanceries and residences in a number of countries which include; South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, the UK, Germany and Malawi.
"We are pleased that we have already finished refurbishing our chancery in Malawi. We are also refurbishing our guest houses in Harare."
Bidding and other public documents show Zimbabwe is looking for an extensive official residence on the 1.02 acre lot. It references looking at a residence approaching the prior one–6,950 square feet on three floors with ten bedrooms, a three car garage, pool and event space.
The current bidding on the official residence is for the design and construction supervision only. Zimbabwe has extended the original bidding response time by three weeks until August 22, 2022.
Source - NewZimbabwe
