Our Embassy

Embassy Of Uruguay, Main Entrance, 1913 I (Eye) Street, NW

Introduction

The new building of our diplomatic representation in the United States of America (US) is located in the heart of downtown Washington, DC, on I (Eye) street—1913 I Street NW, Washington, DC, 20006—a short distance away from Farragut West Metro Station (orange and blue lines).

The Embassy is within blocks of major international organizations, such as the WB, IMF and the OAS.   Principal US Government offices, as the White House, the Department of State, the Department of Treasury, the Office of the US Trade Representative and the Department of Agriculture are all within walking distance from the new building.

The new home to the Embassy of Uruguay has six floors.  The District Consulate and Reception occupies the bottom floor.   In the second you can find the Art Salon (Sala de las Artes), a spacious area where the art form Uruguay is promoted in all its manifestations.

The third floor is dedicated to the Uruguay Armed Forces Mission to the US.   On the fourth, several other national government offices will be located in the near future. 

Finally, on the fifth and sixth floors, the Chancery offices, where the Ambassador's office and various conference rooms are located. 

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Uruguay and the US, this is the first time that our Government owns the building of its diplomatic representation in Washington, DC.

The building was officially inaugurated in 2001.

How to get to the Embassy? See the Washington, DC Area Map and the  Metro System Map in the Contact Us Section.

Our name

Why "Uruwashi"?

The domain's name selected for the Website of the Embassy of Uruguay in the United States of America stands for more than "uru" for Uruguay, and "washi" for Washington, DC; it intends to honor a traditional and long standing jargon of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

In the past, when written forms of communications were much more difficult and complex than they are nowadays, brief and concise messages —between our Embassies around the world and Montevideo— were required. Moreover, every character, number or letter, had a cost. As result, every word, sentence or phrase in a message was better (and economical) weather short and accurate.

For this reason, even names had to be shortened, for instance,  our country was always represented by the letters "ROU" (República Oriental del Uruguay). Denomination of our representations overseas had to be abbreviated as well. All of them had a suffix in common "uru", and after this, a combination of words, usually associated to the name of the city where they stood. That was the origin of "Uruwashi". Hence, our Embassy in Canada, according to the same rule, was named "Uruott", in Argentina "Urubaires", etc. Yet, others may have had such different denominations as, "Urugalia" in France, or "Uruazte" in Mexico.

All these names and denomination outlived the telegraphs and teletypes, and today, in the era of electronic communications they are the expected way to refer to our embassies, delegations to international organizations and consular offices. They are a part of the jargon and terminology of our MFA and Government.

This explanation is a consequence of a message we recently received from one of our nationals. We expect to receive your comments and suggestions about this Website too!

Please, write to uruwashi@uruwashi.org.

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