Kieran Timberlake, the Philadelphia architecture firm noted for such projects as Yale's Sculpture Building & Gallery, has been chosen to design a new (and very expensive) U.S. embassy in the U.K.

With a billion-dollar budget, the 12-story, cube-shaped building is not without critics who argue that the design is not world class or worthy of the site overlooking the Thames. The "blastproof" facade is to be wrapped in transparent ETFE fabric lined with photovoltaic film.

The firm beat out three other American competitors, including starchitects I.M Pei and Richard Meier.