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."
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