Beirut Gate Development

Assisted Projacs International in four stages of design review for a high-density development in the Solidere project area of Beirut. This involved a landscape master planner and four architecture firms.

Our input on behalf of Developer and Project Manager was key in mediating between the five consultants : Antonis Noukaki & Partners (Athens) , Arqitectonica (Miami) , ERGA Group (Beirut) , Nabil Gholam (Beirut) , Christian de Portzamparc (Paris) , how can this project maintain its “brand” as one development while blending in the ever-changing downtown Beirut? The mediated solution was an array of vertical architectural objects, and one concerted horizontal zone that takes over the ground floor of each individual building.

As such, transparent lobbies, paving material inside and out, street crossings and green landscape all tie the project together at the human scale, while keeping a diverse urban skyline high above.

To that end, the team negotiated with Solidere, the downtown real estate company, to change the development guidelines for the ground floor of the project area to eliminate previously mandated colonnades in favor of recessed glazed facades.

Each stage of the design review was concluded with a workshop bringing together the 5 design consultants, client, real-estate finance experts, technical reviewers and Solidere urban designers.