Norman Foster has designed a time capsule to commemorate the 250th anniversary of US independence. The piece was officially presented in Washington, D.C., by UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, to be buried under the plaza at the Washington Monument. It is to be reopened on the Fourth of July in 2276, the country’s 500th Independence Day.

The exterior of the capsule features thirteen five-pointed stars, in reference to the first official flag of the United States, associated with George Washington. It is a sister to the capsule installed in 2025 at Trafalgar Square, London, following the restoration of the George Washington statue and its plinth, a project supervised by Foster + Partners. The firm was also responsible for the Trafalgar Square masterplan drawn up in 2003.

Inside the capsule are letters and proclamations of senior officials in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as winning student entries from the Expressions of Freedom competition in Virginia. It also contains soil from Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of the Washington family in England, alongside soil from Mount Vernon, George Washington's residence in Virginia, which was included in the Trafalgar Square time capsule.