1. LEBANON)
Real estate center, mOVIe theater. and office
building. The dev"elopers, Sama
Beirut jn an eggshell and Salha, had ambitious plans fo
this development; and wanted to
make it the biggest multi-use center
in the Middle Ea~t" The egg-shape'
..
cinema was designed to hold 1,000
"'"
seats and is 24 meters wide and 11
meters high. It was to be accompa-
nied by two towers, of which only
one was built and has since been de-
Bulldozers of development loom for one the city's last iconic buildings stroyed. George Arbid, professor 0-
architecture at the American Uni-
versity of Beirut (AUB), explaine
n the heart of Beirut is the dis- Solidere sold the land without that the distinctive shape of the Eg
tinctive shell of what was once a any legal protection or financial in- came about through unintende
complex called the "City Cen- centive to save the Egg, meaning its consequences.
ter," also affectionately known destruction is almost inevitable. For "The building code at this time
as the "Egg." now, the July 2006 war stopped its was very strict about building movie
The Egg, with its nose imminent demolition and the finan- theaters for structural safety," Arbie
chopped off and deep scars on its cial crisis delayed the bulldozers fur- said. "So the architect, Joseph-
once smooth concrete exterior skin, ther. However, the end appears to be Philippe Karam, convinced the au-
has passed through dramatic changes near for one of the last iconic, mod- thorities that the law did not forbid
in its nearly 50 years of existence. ernist architectural structures in the the use of the space below the movie
Ever since Solidere in 2005 sold the center of Beirut that also carries theater, so he created a retail space
land to Abu Dhabi Investment with it the physical manifestations underneath. Once the movie theater
House (ADIH) as part of the Beirut of the civil war years. was raised and visible, he was force
Gate project, the Egg has been con- The Egg was built between 1965 to give it a distinguished shape.
stantly threatened with demolition. and 1968 as a multi-use shopping hence the concrete egg shell."
48 I J u n e 2 DOg

2. 11"1
The architect and the egg role with the war and the fascina- stirred puqlic interest. Dania Bdier, a
Joseph-Philippe Karam was one tion that it creates." student at AUB, started a Facebook
of Lebanon's most distinguished Residents of Lebanon confirm - group to 'Save the Egg' at the begin-
modernist architects who trained in this enchantmen~ with the Egg and ning of 2009.
Lebanon and designed buildings the history it represents in its current "Wii:Qln four days 3,000 people
throughout the region. appearance. had joined-up to the group," she said.
"The Beirut City Center was one Marie-Louise Ramy, who grew Th~ g~up now has more than
of several examples of his innovative up during Lebanon's civil war, ex- 5,000 members and-had to move to
contriqutions to architecture," said plained the fascination. 'Save the Egg Cause' due to having
Joseph-Philippe Karam's son, Sami "When we came down from the so many members in the group.
Karam. "The surviving cinema [or mountains to Beirut, the whole of Much of the debate of the group
Egg] has become an icon of avant- Beirut used to look like the Egg does does not center on the architectural
gar de Lebanese modernism." now," she said. "So the structure intricacies of the building, but in-
Many of Karam's buildings were
destroyed in the civil war and the "WE ARE STARTING TO LOOK SO MUCH LIKE DUBAI AND
few that remain are being demol- WE ARE NOT, WE ARE LIKE THE EGG. THE EGG IS VERY
ished to make way for high-rise de- IMPORTANT IN LEBANESE HISTORY"
velopments, most notably the Build-
ing Condole, in Rouche, that was acts as a reminder." stead on the role the Egg plays III
demolished in 2004. Arbid disagreed with the idea put Lebanese identity.
The architectural importance of forth by Khoury that the Egg does
(he Egg is contested despite many not have any architectural value. The battle for identity
rap-notch international architects "It is one of the rare free-form For many the Egg is becoming a
admiring the structure. structures in the city [and] it was a centerpiece in the battle for the iden-
"Architecturally speaking the difficult task to execute such a form. tity, not just of the downtown area,
Egg does not have architectural val- It is also important because it is one but the whole of Lebanon. Bdier
ue," said architect Bernard Khoury. of the rare cinema halls raised above was very clear about her reason for
"There are many more important a freed ground floor," he said. starting up the Facebook group.
buildings in Beirut that are, architec- While the architectural impor- "We are starting to look so much
rurally speaking, more important. tance of the building is contested, like Dubai and we are not, we are
The attraction [to the Egg] is the cu- the debate over whether to demolish like the Egg. The Egg is very impor-
riosity of the building in terms of its the structure or not has certainly tant in Lebanese history," she said.
J u n e 200 9 I 49
~ - "
~

3. LEBANON 3
------ m ., _
,i
I
!I I
Many of those on the Facebook
group who support preserving the
Egg do so,.because they want to stop
what they call the 'Dubai-ification'
of Leb~mo~. This allegation is par-
ticularly sensitive given that the land
where the Egg is located is now
owned by the ADIH and the deci-
i' sion as to whether the Egg stays or
goes rests not in Lebanon but in Abu
Dhabi. This point has not been lost
on those who argue for preserving
the Egg. As Jack Samaha, on the
Facebook group proclaimed, "Our
identity and culture as Lebanese is
not for sale [tal Gulf millionaires."
Not all agree with this notion
that the destruction of the Egg will
make Lebanon more like the Gulf,
and many posts support the demoli-
tion of the Egg.
"I saw the Beirut Gate project
and I have to say it's very nice,"
wrote Patrick Saab on the Facebook
group. "The Egg is a mess, and it
can be replaced or rebuilt anywhere
else. Put culture aside, think modern

4. LEBANON)
look for Lebanon ... How do we ex- consultant ERGA Group, produced 2004 commiSSIOn by Solidere. In
pect to get more exposure if we keep two designs for the site. previous statements, Solid ere Chair-
our old, almost destroyed buildings "One of the proposals keeps the man and CEO Nasser Chamma, in
standing?" shell of the Egg and the other de- The Wall Street Journal in 2004, ad-
The ADIH would not speak to molishes it and no decision by the mitted that Solidere wanted to de-
EXECUTIVE in an interview with
but developers has been made as to molish the structure straight away.
Bdier, in January, an unnamed repre- which one will be built," said Eli But many of the star architects
sentative stated: "Solidere wishes us Abu Ghazaly, chief operating officer brought to Lebanon by Solidere,
to keep the soul of this dome by ei- of ERGA. such as Philippe Stark and Jean
ther reshaping it or doing something With no legal obligation to keep Nouvelle, were struck by the Egg
similar. We took it into considera- the Egg it is highly unlikely that the and Solidere decided to think again.
tion and we are considering it, be- developer will wish to keep the It was then that they approached
cause it also has to financially make structure, as it reduces the built up Khoury to propose a scheme to re-
sense for us to do it. For this plot, area of the site and thus significant- develop the Egg.
we bought and paid [for] 39,000 ly reduces its profitability. Abu "There was deadlock over this
meters squared of built up area, and Ghazaly said that because no deci- site for a while and Solidere did not
the dome is only taking up 6,000 or sion has been made as to which pro- know what to do with it," Khoury
7,000 meters squared. The developer posal would be accepted, no images said. "Then in 2004, they called me
who is going to buy it is looking at it." of the proposals could be released. to develop a temporary structure that
French architect Christian de would last five or six years while they
Portzamparc was commissioned to The project that never was figured out what to do with the land.
produce a study for the site, and ac- One project proposal for the ren- But then with the assassination of
cording to the local architectural ovation of the Egg was Khoury'S [former Prime Minister] Rafiq Hariri
52 I J u n 8 2009

5. everything changed. There was a
huge change in Solidere with big in-
terest in the real estate and many big
transactions were made," he said.
"It all occurred much faster than
Solidere ever thought it would happen ...
The land where the Egg is was sold in
one pf the biggest deals and so my
project was stopped," Khoury
adoed.
'The role of Solidere in the Egg's
sale has also been highly controver-
sial,. primarily because of the way
the company parceled up the land
and sold it. When Solidere sold the
lan4 they expressed a "wish" for the
dorile to be kept, but they made no
legal stipulations enforcing it. Abu
Ghazaly defended Solidere by stat-
ing that "to make it illegal, there
needs to be a government decree."
But as Arbid explained, "the
WHEN SOLIDERE SOLD
THE LAND THEY
EXPRESSED A "WISH"
FOR THE DOME TO BE
KEPT, BUT THEY MADE NO
LEGAL STIPULATIONS
ENFORCING IT
way Solidere sold the land makes it
impPsslble to save the Egg."
The manner in which the land
was sold, with a total amount of
built up area, including the area
where the Egg is situated, did not
leave any real possibility for saving
the structure. Despite having already
sold the right to make any assertion
as to the future of the Egg, Solidere
still maintains the structure is going
to be preserved.
As another of Lebanon's histor-
ical sites is destroyed many will be
frustrated by the lack of trans-
parency and debate over these ar-
chitecturally significant sites.
There is a clear lack of will to en-
gage by Solidere or the ADIH in
any sort of debate over whether
these buildings are worth saving or
not. Those who want to preserve
Lebanon's built environment face
an uphill struggle. [I]