2009
Executive Magazine
In the heart of Beirut is the distinctive shell of the City Center that has been affectionately renamed the ‘Egg’. The Egg with its nose chopped off and deep scars on its exterior skin has been passed through dramatic changes in its fifty years of existence. Ever since Solidere in 2005 sold the land to Abu Dhabi Investment House as part of the Beirut Gate project the Egg has been constantly threatened with demolition. Solidere sold the land without any legal protection or financial incentive to save the Egg meaning its destruction is almost inevitable. For now the July 2006 war stopped its imminent demolition and the financial crisis delayed the bulldozers further. However, the end appears to be near for one of the last iconic, modernist architectural structures in the heart of Beirut that also carries with it the physical manifestations of the war years.