International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE)

Historicizing Early Modernity — Decolonizing Heritage: Conservation Design Strategies in

Postwar Beirut
Author(s): ROBERT SALIBA
Source: Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (FALL 2013), pp. 7-24
Published by: International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23612198
Accessed: 01-10-2016 13:19 UTC

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 TDSR VOLUME XXV NUMBER I 2013

Feature Articles

Historicizing Early Moderni

Decolonizing Heritage: Cons
Design Strategies in Postwa

ROBERT SALIBA

This article provides a critical overview of the conservation of colo

central and pericentral districts. It argues that in Lebanon's postco

text, conservation activities have inevitably been linked to the politic

realities of the present as well as to the attitudes of various stakeholde

nity, national identity, and authenticity. The article starts by explaining

colonial townscape during the late Ottoman and French Mandate per

cent strategies of urban and architectural conservation along three lin

based, the concept-based, and the institutional-based. The article conc

the debate over and practice of conservation in Beirut within nationa

[I]t might be more fruitful to understand heritage, tradition, and mo

tegic political positions, rather than as fixed or essential qualities of s
practices, much less of individual identities. Individuals routinely s
tural position to another, adopt one identity or another, as occasion

— Dell Upton1

For the past two decades, since the end of the Lebanese civil war, the practice of heritage
conservation in Beirut has given rise to a wide range of architectural and urban interven
tions; it has also instigated heated debate about the definition of heritage and the nature
Robert Saliba is a Professor of and scope of conservation and planning legislation.2 The time may now be ripe, however,
Architecture, Urban Design, and to take stock of all that has transpired in discourse and practice during this period to char
Planning at the American University acterize and assess Beirut's specific response to postwar conservation and frame it within
of Beirut, Lebanon. regional and global contexts.

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 T D S R 2 5.1

Most of what has been, and still is being, debated per- REFRAMING COLONIAL MODERNI
tains to Beirut's colonial heritage, i.e., to the period from the SHIFTS IN HERITAGE CONCEPTION
second half of the nineteenth century to the first decades of
the twentieth century. During this time the medieval city As Sabine Marschall wrote in "The Herit
was partially razed as part of the Ottoman modernizing Societies":
reforms (1900-1916) and then duly Haussmannized under
the French Mandate (1920S-1930S). Because of this timing, Heritage is commonly understood as a
the buildings and townscapes of this period may be qualified scious, purposeful remembrance for th
simultaneously as "colonial" and "early modern." On the one tural or economic needs of those in the p
hand, their conservation thus raises the issue of assimilating a subjective representation of valued ob
the colonial legacy as an integral part of national heritage, persons, places and symbolic events of t
and on the other, it raises the issue of qualifying early mod- allied with issues of identity and pow
ern architecture as eligible for conservation. especially so, post-colonial societies, followin
This article argues that in a postcolonial/postwar context tainment of independence from colonial
like that of contemporary Beirut, conservation activities have preoccupied with issues of representati
necessarily been reframed according to the political, cultural new identity, for which selected aspects
arid economic realties of the present as well as the attitudes stood as heritage serve as inspiration o
of various stakeholders toward modernity, national identity, seizing of self-representation is often a ke
and authenticity. It also argues that postwar reconstruction as these societies attempt to complemen
has been the catalyst for redefining the city's position toward political freedom with a "decolonization
its colonial heritage. To discuss these issues, the article ar
ticulates a conceptual framework around two contemporary This issue of "decolonization of the min
intellectual movements: postcolonialism and poststructural- particularly strongly in recent literature
ism. The first is used to reposition colonial heritage vis-à-vis World, where it has instigated a "paradi
the local production of modernity; the latter helps redefine the reconceptualization and redefinitio
heritage as a constructed and dynamic notion subject to mul- colonial heritage and the deconstruction
tiple geographical and temporal contingencies. Spatially and relationship to modernity and national
formally, the article also invokes the much-debated notion of In light of the extensive literature p
"facadism" to qualify and discuss the diverse design strategies over the last two decades, this article will
used to promote architectural and townscape conservation. references relevant to urban and archite
The article first provides an overview of the evolution Middle East. It will argue that the "decolo
of Beirut's colonial townscape and describes how such a in the region is occurring along two inter
landscape is replete with the continuing dialectics between The first promotes a shift from the "tr
modernity and national identity. It will focus here on Beirut's ist reading," dominated by a static vision
central district and its periphery, where the highest con- only source of authenticity, and by an Is
centration of late Ottoman and French Mandate structures that emphasizes the religious basis of ur
are still to be found (and are therefore also threatened by ser Elsheshtawy has qualified such a view
development). This is also the area where the most heated counterproductive," leading to "a narrativ
debates about diversified attempts at conservation have been Shirine Hamadeh has argued that it is r
conducted for the past two decades. The second part of the construct, "freezing the image of a soci
article then typologizes and discusses these attempts both on thus maintaining differentiation betwe
ideological and design-practice grounds. The article will con- the colonized."6 By comparison, a more
elude by framing Beirut's conservation debate and practice emerged through postcolonial discours
within national and regional contexts. tage is positioned as an integral part of the n
construct, and the provincial city is seen as capable of s
a unique response to metropolitan modernity. The prov
city has also been reframed within the contemporary gl
ization discourse, in which the concept of heritage cons
tion has shifted from the museumification of medieval
to the "manufacturing of heritage" for tourist consumptio
The second decolonization track, meanwhile, positio
local "actors and stakeholders" as participants, rather th
passive receivers, in the process of early modernization
lonialism is thus interpreted as a simultaneous indicator

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

figure i. Early modernity: evolution

of Beirut's residential architecture.
Source: author.
A
<

Supra-vernacular:
mansion or palace (kasr)

□
A £1 fil .Q

A £b£
F
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High and mainstream vernacular: n.. r1!* irvrP
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family apartment house (bayt or hara) NlTPAf- 3 Ay con'. r,iii(
^uiupims ^yitceoiuoitJ<>

B |
[fl
Basic vernacular:
house and farmhouse (bayt or dar)
j, 4, ->>«*>
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T**n/x, M*iHila-now e*= ,w iJBC<Je*n *tt>
t*fvece> s^yues, jfRoiBe'Avs j m'£."
A»tWf iAf4L*<riokj OF Fe^h^a.

Western hegemony and a conscious choice by the colonized CONTEXTUALIZING COLONIAL MODERNIT
to join Western modernity. In "Urbanism: Imported or FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF BE
Exported?" Mercedes Volait and Joe Nasr argued that "plan- CENTER AND PERICENTER TOWNSCAPES
ning and architectural discourse can be shaped by domestic
realities (such as economic and social structures and political The townscapes of Beirut's central and periphera
intents) as much as by the experience of professional plan- are the product of three stages of modernization,
ners (whether indigenous or foreign)."8 Colonial heritage which generated its own dynamics of physical ur
may therefore be envisioned as the result of a hybridization as well as its own response to imported architect
between "native aspirations and foreign plans," forces which ban models.10
mutually and dialectally affected each other. Early modernity: suburbanization/centralization. As
This complexification of the historical discourse has recently as the 1940s and 1950s the city center and its im
permeated the investigation of city profiles as well as single mediate surroundings formed a continuous spatial entity
monuments and buildings. In "Weaving Historical Nar- with no major breaks in its urban fabric. These areas were
ratives: Beirut's Last Mamluk Monument," for example, differentiated only by a gradual change in land use from
Howayda Al-Harithy identified three different narratives of office/commercial and institutional uses to high-density
postwar conservation — the religious, the archeological, and residential. This land-use pattern was established through
the architectural — and showed how all three were woven successive phases of historical growth, initiated in the 1840s
around the same monument to serve socio-political and/or by the expansion of the city beyond its medieval walls. In
economic ends. Such an approach is anchored in the aware- less than a century, the adjoining agricultural hinterland
ness of buildings as dynamic signifiers rather than objects was transformed into a sprawling suburb, then into a series
with inherent meaning, a view that introduces a poststructur- of well-defined urban districts exhibiting a high diversity of
alist perspective to heritage conservation.9 socioeconomic characteristics and lifestyles.
This article builds on both these postcolonial and post- Shaped by land speculation and an increasing rural-to
structuralist discourses to investigate recent attempts at urban migration, Beirut's residential architecture also gradu
conserving early modern/colonial heritage in Beirut. It does ally transformed itself from the suburban bourgeois house
this by reframing Beirut's recent urban history in terms of (the triple-arched central-hall house) and ornate mansion, to
its dialectic relationship with Westernization and modernity. the peri-urban apartment house, and then to the speculative
Concurrently, it explores ongoing architectural and urban urban apartment building (fig.i)." Meanwhile, the old fab
conservation strategies from a pluralist perspective, engaging ric of the central district was being razed to accommodate the
the multiple views of actors and stakeholders and their own Ottoman and French urban reforms. This gave rise to two
legitimizing narratives. successive waves of early modernization: the Tanzimat and

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 T D S R 2 5.1

iB^r v:
Vv'v'i;V; v~:
-W3S® '? ■ '■•'
lt* ; i*.
'•••.•• *vTBU8« #*•£*_ .•
■V™;a4^,:v

SHKftAmi

riGURE 2. leet: The Tanzimat city, Beirut Central district in 1920 showing the early modernization of the city center by the Ottomans; two
sections of the medieval core were demolished in order to regularize the urban fabric and build rectilinear streets linking the port to the periphery.
right: The Haussmannian city, the 1932 Danger plan with the Etoile square superimposed on the medieval fabric.

the Haussmannized city center ( f i g . 2 ). Most notably, dur- later. First, zoning law (law 70, decree 6285), established in
ing this later period, the Foch-Allenby and Place de l'Etoile August 31,1954, created ten concentric zones of diminishing
schemes, consisting of star-shaped and wide, gallery-lined floor-to-area ratio (FAR) extending from the center of the city
avenues, were superimposed on the medieval fabric. outward. Today, however, this zoning law, which is still en
A stage-set approach was adopted based on facade com- forced, works against the logic of urban conservation by stipu
petitions that produced models for buildings in both areas. lating that the highest allowable densities must occur in the
This meant that the traditional central-hall plan was replaced historic core and its immediate periphery, precisely where the
by an efficient office layout, while street elevations were dif- highest concentration of precolonial and colonial structures
ferentiated by diverse stylistic treatments. are found. The second major transformation was infrastruc
During this time the two symbols of local power, the tural, and consisted of the superimposition of the inner-city
Parliament and the Municipality buildings, also expressed ring road around the central business district during the
the dual nature of an ambiguous search for national identity. 1960s ( r 1 g . 5 ). This created a physical break between the
The former adopted an Oriental-revivalist style that articu- city center and its periphery.
lated historical regional references with neo-Mamluk over- Late modernity: recentralization/segregation. This period,
tones ( F i g . 3 ). The latter provided a clear expression of the also referred to as the third modernity, corresponded with
Neo-Islamic style developed in Cairo by turn-of-the-century the globalization trend that began in the 1980s and 1990s.13
Western and Western-educated architects ( f i g . 4 )It saw the completion of the city's inner ring road through
High modernity: decentralization/infrastructural imposi- the construction of Avenue Georges Haddad to the east and
tion. The independence period, extending from 1943 until the widening of Rue Fakhereddine to the west. These infra
the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, brought two major structural boundaries in turn set the limits of the post-civil
modifications, which would have a decisive impact on the war redevelopment area. This clearly demarcated the central
preservation of the early modern heritage half a century from the peripheral districts, causing two planning systems

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

figure 3. The
Parliament building and
the clock tower of Place
de L'Etoile. Architect:
Mardiros Altounian

(i88g-ig;8). Source:
®The Fouad Debbas
Collection, Beirut. Used
with permission.

to emerge side by side ( f i g . 6 ). On the central district side, of late Ottoman and French Mandate structures by highrise
Solidere, the real estate company responsible for downtown apartment buildings.
reconstruction, is now implementing a detailed master plan How does this dual system affect the remaining colonial
with an integrated urban conservation strategy. However, townscapes of the center and pericenter, and what are the
outside Beirut Central District (BCD), the pre-civil war blan- resulting conservation strategies adopted by the public and
ket zoning is still operative, leading to the ad hoc develop- private sectors?
ment of vacant parcels and the destruction and replacement

figure 4. The
Municipality building.
Architect Youssef Aftimos
(1868-1952). Source:
Solidere.

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 T D S R 2 5.1

figure 5. Segregation of the urban fabric

through zoning and major circulation arteries
during the 3950s and 3960s. Source: Institut
Français du Proche-Orient.

figure 6. Beirut Central District's detailed

master plan contrasts with the periphery, still

regulated by an outdated zoning legislation.
Source: Solidere.

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

TYPOLOGIZING CONSERVATION DESIGN STRATEGIES THE PERICENTER DISTRICTS: FACADISM AS

ARCHITECTURAL STRATEGY

I will refer to conservation design strategies in post-civil

war Beirut as the outcome of negotiation between a client/ From a market perspective, Beirut's e
developer and a designer, as framed by aesthetic, legislative, may be perceived both as an asset an
functional and economic considerations. Thus, the type and their heritage value can be seen as "
scope of a design intervention is generated by the intersection for "the mechanisms of post-modern
of the developer's agenda and the designer's conceptual ori- ing on the unique identity of place."1
entation and readiness to compromise. The result is a validat- by zoning law in the city's pericenter d
ing narrative that may be different for each project. the existing level of development. Most
To account for the diversity of interventions, it is neces- the colonial period are walk-up/pre-ele
sary to differentiate between three strands of postwar heri- a maximum of four floors. From an
tage conservation: the market-based, the concept-based, and the optimizing parcel development thus
institution-based. Each of these strands may be further ap- tical extension and/or vertical juxtap
prehended through two complementary readings: heritage as the lost built-up area. Of the two st
representation and heritage as manifestation. The first reading tion is the most prevalent solution; i
emphasizes signification — i.e., the intended meaning to be existing facade (or building) and add
conveyed by the project as agreed upon by the client and the ture behind it. This approach liberat
designer, and as expressing their attitude toward the continu- constraining envelope of the existing
ity of past, present and future. The second reading is spatial freedom to lay out efficient floor plan
and physical. It addresses the issue of integration — i.e., the To promote vertical-juxtaposition
dialectical relationship of a building's frontage both to its have attempted to articulate a "double
interior and to the surrounding townscape. This dual spatial positioning themselves both as heri
orientation necessarily invokes the notion of facadism — not viders of fashionable settings for co
in the reductive sense of preserving the original facades and example is the narrative posted on t
the construction of a modern structure behind them, but in stone, a real estate development com
the more inclusive sense described by Jonathan Richards: dential project, l'Armonial, in the tren
Hayek (riG.7) :
Facadism presents a critical analysis of a concept that
is central to the way in which the modern city is being Beirut has fallen into a haphazard bu
remodelled. Facadism involves the preservation of his- recent years, which has seen the unfo
toric facades, the creation of facsimiles in front of new some of Lebanon's great architectur
buildings, and the decorative exercises of postmodern- hoods. Based on its corporate citizen
ism. It has been accused of destroying architectural Greenstone is proud to play its role in
innovation, of divorcing the interior and exterior of this rich architectural heritage for gen
buildings, and of reducing townscapes to stage sets. Yet By incorporating the traditional faç
defenders of facadism describe it as the way to link ur- Mandate building into modern resid
ban tradition and progressclients can purchase a piece of history without compro
mising their demands for modern living.

The two readings, the semantic and the spatial, repre- L'Armonial is a residence like no other in Lebanon.
sent attempts at articulating the relationship between an iocflted fn thg hgaH ofone 0fBáruVs most traditionai
ideological stand and a design strategy. Of course, they must neighborhoods, it combines the 'modern' to the 'tradi
also take into consideration the two main determining factors tional'. It offers home-buyers an opportunity to have
of scale and context. Scale of intervention may range from ^g modern amenities of new architecture while preserv
individual infill sites, to freestanding landmark buildings, ¡ng fhg SQul ofthg neighhorhood.
to district streetscapes. Concurrently, context necessitates a
response to legislative and market constraints and their dif- Greenstone accomplished a construction feat by pre
ferences between center and pericenter districts. servinë the façade of the original building and actually
incorporating it into the design of the new building.
With traditional moldings, wrought iron, and addition
al subtle details, the building not only fits seamlessly
into this traditional neighborhood but actually breathes
new life into it.'6

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 T D S R 2 5.1

I
In another project, the architects of l'Armonial (Ate
des Architectes Associés, Beirut) opted instead for the
cal extension of a 1930s residential building to accomm
a five-star boutique hotel. In this case, three additiona
floors were added to the existing four-floor structure to
the maximum 40-meter height limit permitted by zon
( r i g . 8 ). The hotel was then crowned by a rooftop poo
terrace bar with a panoramic view. Capitalizing on the
nal central-hall layout characteristic of pre-i930s reside
buildings, the internal partitions were retained and th
ing's original apartments were turned into individual h
suites. In keeping with the colonial spirit, the hotel wa
branded with an Ottoman-retro theme. This strategy m
qualified as the reappropriation of colonial modernity f
temporary marketing, a trend described by Nezar AlSa
"manufacturing heritage and consuming tradition."
From the concept-based perspective, early modern he
may be left to the personal interpretation of the designe
Here the historical structure is seen as an uninhabite
ture to be invested with the imagination of the architec
An emblematic project that belongs to this category is
architect Bernard Khoury's Centrale restaurant, "house
a recuperated ruin of a 1920's residential structure that
placed under historical protection" ( r 1 g . 9 ). As describ
the architect:

FiGUBH 7. L'Armonial residential tower, Furn el Hayek, Beirut.

Developer: Greenstone. Architect: Atelier des Architectes Associés. Photo
hy author.

1
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igig ' I
F Tin
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FT F"F
UkmilB
-|S!
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-j
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//7_^. f
V 1
X^A-j ngHfe
K? i
wvl
JyJ \!} •^Kr*n r
.ote£. Qjttl "mfc * '-if
il

figure 8. Hotel Albergo, Furn el Hayek, Beirut, left: original building, center and right: later vertical extension. Architect: Atelier
des Architectes Associés. Courtesy of Atelier des Architectes Associés.

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

r i g u R i 9. Centrale restaurant, Gemayzeh, Beirut. Architect: Bernard Khoury. lift

of DWj/Bernard Khoury). right: drawing of elevation. Courtesy of DW<j/Bernard Kh

The internal partitioning walls of the building and the of high symb
slab of the first floor level had to be demolished. In the of Lebanon
process of voiding out the interior of the existing struc- nialism. Two
ture, the outer envelope of the house had to be reinforced Grand Serai
by placing horizontal beams that embrace the skin ( r i g . i o ) 2°; an
from the outer perimeter of the façade. . .. The steel American Uni
beams used in the temporary reinforcement process are monuments o
preserved. They now imply a new reading of the non- period, and th
restored façade. Furthermore, we chose not to re-plaster vincial capital b
the damaged facade, as it would have been the case in Both monume
a traditional rehabilitation, instead, it is covered with reinforce thei
a metallic mesh behind which the plaster finishing of Hill" with a co
the old façade remains in a state of decomposition. The is framed by
mesh now enhances the poetic dimension of decay.'7 The post-civil
lowed the same conservation design str
This deconstructivist approach mirrors the radical view the fact that
of "conceptual urbanists" who "attempt to shake off assump- volved rep
tions of what the city was, is, or should be."18 They also seek from the
to "appreciate its fluid instabilities as well as its inertia of by the follo
material residue."'9 Khoury's reading of the past is thus pur- evince a com
posefully inessential, and his relation to the future is tempo- while being
rary and fluid. It also betrays a sense of distrust toward the
political context of "stable instability" characteristic of post- The Gran
civil war Beirut. The dialectic between the inside and the epitomizing
outside that constitutes the fundamental problematic of both known
the market-based and the institution-based approaches is location and
here made banal. For this fashionable restaurant and bar, the racks in I
designer plays on the avant-garde leanings of local yuppies to two tall fl
express openly the unresolved interface between colonial and metres (
postwar modernity. of heritage architecture with a modern interior and
In contrast to the previous two approaches, the institu- high-tech amenities. Its reinstatemen
tion-based perspective regards early modern buildings as icons Prime Minister's offices has consecr

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 T D S R 2 5.1

as the focus of political life. A faithful adaptation of the And concerning College Hall:
original Ottoman structure resulted in a larger, more
functional building. The external walls were com- When the new College Hall is dedicated
pletely restored and stone from demolished buildings will be the most modern academic admin
was used in the additional floor, thereby preserving a center in the Middle East. The design (by
homogeneous facade.21 York architectural firm of Haines Lundberg Waehler)
and construction (by the Lebanese company Karagula)
bring sophisticated planning, engineering and systems

figure io. The Grand Serait, top to bottom: the building

figure ii. College Hall, American University of Beirut, top to
as it appeared in its original form, during the civil war, and as a postwar
bottom: before (source: American University of Beirut/Jafet Library
reincarnation. Source: Ayman Trawi. Archives and Special Collections); and after rebuilding (photo by author).

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 S A L i B A : CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

together within a meticulous duplication of the original and Etoile areas (the Hauss
building's exquisite îc/th century exterior. The new adjoining Banking Street dat
structure pays tribute to the past as it propels the Uni- riod. This colonial/early m
versity into the forefront of the information age.'4 whole and exhibited a distin
governmental and religious nucleus of post-civil
In the case of both buildings the restoration effort has Together with the Serail Hill
emphasized their standing as official symbols, legitimizing city center, the areas wer
institutional continuity through an enduring presence in the tion district (tigs.12,1
townscape. Here visibility (the relationship of the building's around which the remain
exterior to its setting), takes precedence over integrity (the lated network of streets an
relationship of the building's exterior to its interiors). Thus, The recuperation of
the restoration effort in both cases involved adding one floor issues: spatial and visual in
to the original structures, and College Hall was moved 14 me- center; urban identity, ex
ters north of its original location. With a 25 percent increase tion and modernity, betwe
in floor area and a clock tower that is 106 cm taller than the intended and perceived
original, College Hall now also includes a two-level base- tion of architectural conser
ment. Furthermore, the new College Hall "was designed to Integration with the tr
withstand earthquakes," while "internally, a central computer conservation area owes i
will monitor air-conditioning and electrical equipment."25 sity and distinctiveness o
The divorce of the envelope of both monuments from stems from the juxtapositio
their interiors may, however, qualify as an exercise in eclectic fronts of Foch-All
facadism not compliant with the ICOMOS Charter of Venice fronts of Maarad Street,
(International Council on Monuments and Sites). This states the area between Etoile
that "a monument is inseparable from the history to which it range of design styles
bears witness and from the setting in which it occurs. The tion of the city center fr
moving of all or part of a monument cannot be allowed ex- style expressing the emer
cept where the safeguarding of that monument demands it buildings.29 Following th
or where it is justified by national or international interest of Paris, all these facades, h
paramount importance."26 However, regardless of the chang- line and subdivided into
es introduced to their respective envelopes and settings, Besides the damage in
both buildings are now part of the public consciousness. As during the civil war, at th
intended, they are being assimilated as visual evidence of the initiated their street front
capacity of the state and an important educational institu- ity on account both of d
tion to rebound and to endure adverse historical events. Few 1920s structures and late
question their authenticity. and 1960s (f ig. 15). For example, some structures had not
As illustrated above, the controversy around facadism as been completed to their intended heights, while o
a legitimate conservation strategy is far from being resolved. been extended vertically with a modern body or
Ironically, it parallels Robert Venturi's postmodern reading pathetic to the rest of the building. The streetwal
of much of Las Vegas's strip architecture as "decorated sheds" devised for the whole area as part of the conserv
where the sign claims precedence over the building.27 How- dressed this issue in a number of ways, allowing
ever, in Beirut this controversy has been expanded from the structures to be upgraded to their original design
architectural to the urban scale. The trend toward facadism infill development to match the neighboring stru
as a "townscape" strategy in Western contemporary cities for the overall street profiles to read as a harmonio
under the impact of excessive economic liberalism was ad- (f i g . 16).'° Moreover, the role of streetwall cont
dressed by an international conference entitled "Facadism tended beyond the conservation area itself to serv
and Urban Identity," held in 1999 in Paris.28 Beirut's Central of integration and visual connection between th
District reconstruction may be considered a reflection of this the rest of the central district.
trend in a non-Western/postcolonial context. Integration with the new waterfront extension. Th
nated conservation area had traditionally acted as an interfac
zone between the port and the city. Historically, it had been
THE CENTRAL DISTRICT: FACADISM AS TOWNSCAPE a domain of interaction between the two, deeply imp
S T R AT E G Y the port's accessibility to the hinterland and by the accessibil
ity of the city to the waterfront. In modern times, however,
At the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, the only areas of as the port expanded east onto reclaimed lan
the BCD spared extensive devastation were the Foch-Allenby sively acquired operational autonomy, the relat

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 T D S R 2 5.1

figure 12. Beirut Central District, the

conservation area. Source: Solidere.

Archeologieal sites

m Pedestrian streets Et links

__ Streets Et sidewalks

Breakwater

Q Underground parkings

Public and civic facilities

Q Churches
Retained buildings
O Mosques
Major utilities ,
Hp Synagogue

figure 13. Beirut Central

context. Source: Solidere.

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

figure 14. (from ieft to right) The eclectic fronts of Foch-AUenby; the neo-Otto
and Banking street. Source: Solidere.

Grd + 3 storeys Grd* 4 storeys Grd ♦ 3 storeys Grd + 3 storeys Grd + 3 storeys Grd ♦ 6 modem Grd +
storeys (tall mezzanine)
Ht 21m Ht 23.5 including Ht 18m lit 18.5m Ht 19m Ht 18m Ht 26m including Kt20m
attic lit 23m Ht 19m max double attic
Good quality Good quality Good quality Front rebuilt: Fair quality
Good quality| Uncharacteristic
but High quality flank wall shows Good quality but
obtrusive attic
i ! | original design obtrusive attics
I
I

—i—11 »»i*
11
Of un II
mi
IlliiiSail iiisii ■■■ u
inn
IB i-liiii

figure 15. top: colonial frontages and later additions in the ig;os and 1960s, bottom: new street frontages afterSource: Solidere.
renovation.

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 T D S R 2 5.1

MM- SETBACK

BUILD-TO LME

_1
UPPER FLOORS

MAX. HEIGHT PLANE

UPPER FLOOR
CORNICE UNE

TYPICAL FLOOR!
/
t 4 / TYPICAL FLOORS

HORIZONTAL

t
SW2 SWA2 I ALLENBY/FOCH ) SW4

16. Street wall Source: Solidere.

controls by Solidere.

area to the seafront was gradually modified. The creation of a of visual, physical and functional permeability between the
new waterfront district to the north as part of the BCD recon- historic core, the city center, and the waterfront. It attempts
struction has further distanced Foch-Allenby and Etoile from to achieve this by means of the articulation of all BCD sectors
the sea, divorcing it in the process from its ability to call itself around four visual corridors ( f i g . 17 ). These emanate from
a port district. the conservation area and integrate old and new street pat
To address this situation, the new urban structure de- terns: the Serail corridor and the Bourj Squa
vised by the BCD Master Plan revolves around the creation Allenby and Foch axes.

at
o

riGTiRi 17. Visual corridors as means for integrating

old and new central district. Source: Solidere.

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 S A L I B A : CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

The theme of "grand axes," first implemented during NEGOTIATING THE VALUE OF HERITAGE

the French Mandate period through the creation of Foch and

Maarad-Allenby Avenues, has thus become an integrating In reference to Sabine Marschall's statement that "heritag
feature for the entire BCD, from its southernmost extremity commonly understood as a process of conscious, purpose
to its new northern waterfront. Accordingly, street alignmentremembrance for the political, cultural or economic need
and perimeter-block development patterns from the existing of those in the present," it is possible to detect three curre
portions of Foch and Allenby Avenues have been applied to readings of early modern heritage in Beirut.33
their extensions. In summary, then, an urban design strate The first reading is opportunistic. In this sense, the v
gy reminiscent of mid-nineteenth-century Paris, first appliedof heritage is negotiated between the designer and the d
to Beirut in the 1920s, has been brought to its full potential veloper and determined by the economic and programma
three-quarters of a century later. Colonial modernity has necessities of the project and the legislative constraints p
been both "historicized" and "decolonized" through its full on a site. Heritage conservation here becomes a market
semantic and spatial integration as heritage and as a guiding device, legitimized through the double narrative of the
design principle for the present extension of the city center. veloper as a promoter of heritage and a trendsetter appea
Once a showcase of early modernity in the Levant, Beirut is to contemporary consumer lifestyles. The accompanying
now being re-created as a showcase of late modernity — a architectural strategy normally involves the reuse of exis
model that is being exported to other cities in the Arab World.facades or buildings and their vertical juxtaposition or e
On the ideological level, what constitutes the specificity sion to optimize site utilization.
of the conservation approach in the BCD is the inescapable Such facadism may be justified in two ways: either
intersection of market- and institution-based concerns. As because the retention of a building's elevation is needed
mentioned above, Solidere, a real estate company entrusted preserve street character, or because the strategic positi
with the reconstruction of the civic and business heart of the ing of the new structure foregrounds the historic buildin
city, was faced with the dialectical complexity of being both a as the "star" or "image de marque" of the project. This lat
developer and a custodian of national identity and heritage. argument was, for example, used by Ziad Akl, the archit
This balancing act was not confined to the architectural the Residences Ibrahim Sursock, a tower residence built
scale (as is the case in the peripheral districts); it also had to prestigious historic quarter of the pericenter ( r i g . 18 ) ,34
encompass the district scale. In that sense, Solidere was re
sponsible for reinforcing the presence of single structures in
the townscape that celebrate the continuity of the state (such
as the Grand Serail), and for creating a memorable townscape
experience as a reminder of what the pre-civil war central
district was, and what it should again be as a signal of civic
pride and belief in the city's future.
The townscape conservation approach adopted by Soli
dere has triggered a wide range of responses. At one extreme,
the design strategy has been severely criticized as producing
a neoliberal stage set, and as being an exercise in facadism for
tourist consumption.3' At the other (more related to people's
experience), the refurbished frontages have been regarded as
definers of a coherent streetscape, a quality notoriously lack
ing in an overcrowded city like Beirut, which is characterized
by a chronic lack of public amenities and by general visual
chaos. However, the way Solidere has framed its own ap
proach is typical of the market-led response, also seen in the
pericenter, in which a developer uses the double-edged narra
tive of preserving the past while accommodating future needs.
Hence, Solidere's Web page defines restoration as combining
"authenticity, based on research and high-quality craftsman
ship in stonemasonry, with a progressive outlook and regard
to the needs of contemporary life and business."32 As such,
Solidere justifies its role as both the custodian of downtown
heritage and the agent of its postwar economic revitalization figure 18. Residences Ibrahim Sursock. Architect: Ziad AU and
— hence, its motto: "Beirut, an ancient city for the future." Associates. Photo by author.

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 T D S R 2 5.1

A second reading of heritage is normative. This view is hand, the rebuilding of historic facades w
typically advanced by academicians, architectural historians, is accepted as a necessary townscape str
and conservation specialists, who consider themselves to be of historic landmarks, irrespective of th
authorities when it comes to setting standards for urban con- architectural historians and conservat
servation. Their claims are legitimized by their historical and The three alternative readings above
technical knowledge, as well as by their presumed lack of a the ways that defining, perceiving and d
profit motivation. This reading, however, vacillates between are contingent on socioeconomic and c
two extreme positions. At one end, the purists endorse the and needs. Post-civil war reconstruction
rational integration between the exterior and the interior as a powerful catalyst for dynamically e
of buildings (classical and modernist ideals), and condemn to terms with early modern heritage, irr
facadism as a dishonest, eclectic and debased practice, quali- sity of approaches — market-based, ins
fied with such derogatory terms as "facadomy." At the other cept-based. This reflects Dell Upton's v
extreme, the postmodernists advocate eclecticism, histori- of heritage, identity, and authenticity ...
cism, and the validity of "complexity and contradiction." in times of great political and economic c
Architectural form is here accepted as both pluralist and frag- Beirut's early modern heritage h
mentary, following Robert Venturi's assertion that "it must lated as part of the national patrimony
embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy tion of a conservation area and its central
unity of exclusion."35 By conceptually separating the exterior war development of the central district.
and the interior of buildings, this view of facadism allows symbols of Ottoman and French Mandat
architects to creatively reinterpret the past while engaging in been re-created through their investm
a visual discourse about the global and the local. According to ministrative and cultural uses; in the p
this argument, the separation of external form from internal visual signifiers has been reinforced a
function also opens new opportunities for historic buildings, the contemporary townscape. And colo
helping to ensure their continued relevance and survival with- been seized upon as a historic asset to
in an ever changing physical and socioeconomic context.36 promotion in both Beirut's central and p
The problem with postmodern arguments is that they This last process in particular is a refl
can easily be distorted by developers to become self-serving ex-colonial context, of the same neolibe
rationalizations that use historic preservation to cover up real emerged in the last several decades in
estate marketing strategies. The same arguments can be What was during the early decades of th
used by architects to justify and equate elementary facadist a movement for "beautifying cities" (t
solutions (such as vertical juxtaposition and smart siting) mannian tradition in Europe and the Ci
with more sophisticated design interpretations based on a U.S.) evolved during the last decades of t
complex and original understanding of the post-civil war en- movement of "marketing cities." These
vironment, as is the case with the Centrale restaurant. represent a major paradigm shift at the c
Accordingly, it may be necessary to have recourse to a ertheless accord similar importance to th
third reading, an empirical one, based on how people perceive central district, and to the realization
through their actual townscape experience the validity of ments can be profitable for business and
these otherwise diverse views. The central questions to be tion. However, they differ in terms of t
investigated here include the following. Is the retention of conservation. Thus, according to Anne
early modern elevations perceived by people as an act of sue- of the facade" in early modernism has
cessful integration or just a way of screening the intrusion "facadism" in postmodernism.38
of highrise structures in historic districts? And are replica Taking the prototypical example of B
elevations with modernized interiors perceived by people as one has identified three successive appr
an act derogatory to authenticity or as a successful strategy tion in the central districts of Europea
for securing the future presence of landmark buildings in the sical tradition, where the "cult of the fa
townscape? (The Grand Serail and College Hall are the most framing formal new public spaces (to the
obvious cases of the latter.) provisional facades behind which actual bui
While no systematic surveys have been conducted to built later); 2) the post-World War II recon
flesh out such an empiricist reading, preliminary observa- which aimed to preserve memory by re
tions suggest that people react to facade retention with new structures exactly as they were, but to
structures behind as an act of visual intrusion, irrespective and as part of new city plans; and 3) po
of market-based rationalizations by designers and develop- which has expressed "the contrast betwe
ers. The same negative attitude prevails regarding the siting est in the protection of cultural heritag
of residential towers to frame old structures. On the other contingencies of property speculation."

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 SALIBA: CONSERVATION DESIGN IN POSTWAR BEIRUT

rut, the same trends prevail, with the main difference being colonialism
that post-civil war reconstruction has corresponded with the given by th
advent of neoliberalism as a predominant economic force, also apply t
transforming the city center into an arena for corporate real
estate speculation. The resulting design strategies are the Egypt's belle
same, however, in Western and non-Western contexts, "where struggle,
historical depth is reduced to the dreary flattening of two- pean archit
dimensionality."40 tions. Rather, new awareness evolved as the fruit of
From a regional perspective, other cities in the Arab local initiatives led by Egyptians, reviving o
World, notably Cairo, have recently exhibited a renewal of pride, remembering the birth of our own ki
interest in their early modern architectural heritage that is modernity, and commemorating a time of
similar to post-civil war Beirut, even if it has not produced liberal, revolutionary, cosmopolitan urban
the same catalytic effect. In their article "Belle-Époque Cairo:
The Politics of Refurbishing the Downtown Business Dis- The question remains, however: Are su
trict," Galila El Kadi and Dalila Elkerdany speculated, "It may outcome of a new heritage consciousness, t
seem surprising the degree to which a proudly nationalistic of the mind" referred to by Marschall, wher
Arab state like Egypt takes interest in and dedicates scarce has been reinterpreted, reframed and reassi
resources to architectural and urban legacies inside its ter- gral part of contemporary national identity i
ritory which date to an era of foreign hegemony of British

REFERENCE NOTES

1. D. Upton, "Authentic Anxieties," in

and Urbanism of the Colonial Enterprise cases: the global hub and the postwar
(Aldershot: Avebury, 2005), pp.241-59,
N. AlSayyad, ed., Consuming Tradition, city — the first exemplified by Dubai and
Manufacturing Heritage: Global Normsas cited
andin Elsheshtawy, "The Middle East the second by Beirut. Both cities followed
City," p.4.
Urban Forms in the Age of Tourism (London: the model of the "entrepreneurial city,"
Routledge, 2001), p.300. 7. AlSayyad, Consuming Tradition, with their emerging downtowns shaped
2. The following are two conferenceManufacturing Heritage. as speculative townscapes financed and
proceeding publications that provide 8. J.
a Nasr and M. Volait, eds., Urbanism implemented by joint public-private
comprehensive overview of the conservation
Imported or Exported? Native Aspirations partnerships and packaged for tourism
debate during the last two decades: and M.F.Foreign Plans (Chichester: John Wiley & development and elite consumption
Davie and Z. Akl, eds., Le patrimoineSons urbain
Ltd., 2003), p.xiii. practices. Beirut's Central District
9. H. Al-Harithy, "Weaving Historical
et architectural au Liban; pour qui, pourquoi, reconstruction model was further exported
Comment faire? (Beirut and Tours: Narratives:
CNRS Beirut's Last Mamluk to Amman in the form of the Al-Abdali
URBAMA and the Institut d'Urbanisme de Monument," Muqarnas: An Annual on the Urban Regeneration Project. Compared
L'ALBA, 1999); and M, Fawaz, éd., Urban Visual Culture of the Islamic World, No. xxv to the Western context, conservation is
Heritage and the Politics of the Present: (2008), pp.187-214. taking shape less as a regenerative tool
Perspectives from the Middle East (Beirut: xo. For a detailed discussion of the evolution for the restoration of historic cores than
American University of Beirut, 2006). of early modern townscapes in Beirut, see R. in terms of large-scale development
3. S. Marschall, "The Heritage of Post Saliba, Beyrouth Architectures: Aux Sources projects that strongly contrast with former
Colonial Societies," in B. Graham and de la Modernité, 1920-1940 (Marseille: colonial-period notions of preservation as
P. Howard, eds., The Ashgate Research Editions Parenthèses, 2009), pp.22-32; and a museum-related phenomenon. Writing
Companion to Heritage and Identity R. Saliba, Beirut City Center Recovery: The on neoliberal urbanism in Lebanon and

(Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008), p.347. Foch-Allenby and Etoile Conservation Area Jordan includes R. Daher, "Swift Urban
4. S. Al-Hathloul, The Arab-Muslim City: (Gdttingen: Steidl, 2004), pp.33-43. Heritage Donor Recipes and Neoliberal
Tradition, Continuity and Change in the 11. Saliba, Beyrouth Architectures, pp.58-65. Restructuring: Jordan and Lebanon as Case
Physical Environment (Riyadh: Dar Al 12. Saliba, Beirut City Center Recovery, Studies," in M. Fawaz, ed., Urban Heritage
Sahan, 1996); and S. Bianca, Urban Form pp.122-23. and the Politics of the Present: Perspectives
in the Arab World Past and Present (London: 13. The notion of "late modernity" is from the Middle East (Beirut: American
Thames and Hudson, 2000), as cited in here linked to the "neoliberal urbanism" University of Beirut, 2006), p.48-62; and
Y. Elsheshtawy, "The Middle East City: movement of the last two decades in terms D. Summer, "Neo-liberalizing the City:
Moving beyond the Narrative of Loss," of its impact on Third World cities. In the Transitional Investment Networks and the
in Y. Elsheshtawy, ed., Planning Middle Middle Eastern context, earlier stages of Circulation of Urban Images in Beirut and
Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in modernity in urbanism are usually referredAmman," MA thesis (Urban Planning)
a Globalizing World (London: Routledge, to as "colonial urbanism" (pertaining to American University of Beirut, 2005. For
2004), pp.3,5. the late nineteenth century and to the a regional overview, see M. al-Asad, "The
5. Elsheshtawy, "The Middle East City," p.4. early decades of the twentieth century), Contemporary Built Environment in the
6. S. Hamadeh, "Creating the Traditional and "modernist planning" (pertaining Middle East," The Middle East Institute
City: A French Project," in N. AlSayyad, ed., to the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s). Late (2008), pp.26-28, available at www.
Forms of Dominance: On the Architecture modernity is illustrated by two extreme mideasti.org.

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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 T D S R 2 5.1

14- J- Richards, Facadism (London:22. J. Hanssen, Fin de Siècle Beirut: The 32. http://www.solidere.com/project/
Routledge, 1994), book synopsis. Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital historic.html
15. O. Kogler, "Prospects for Preservation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 33. S. Marschall, "The Heritage of Post
of Historic Buildings," in H. Gebhardt, D.
pp.241-47. Colonial Societies," p.347.
Sack, R. Bodenstein, A. Fritz, J. Hanssen, 23. http://www.solidere.com/business/ 34. Z. Akl, "Autorités opinion publique
and B. Hillenkamp, History, Space grserail.html
and et architects dans le collimateur de
Social Conflict in Beirut: The Quarter 24.of
From the College Hall Reconstruction la preservation du patrimoine," Al
Zokak el-Blat (Beirut: Orient-Institut, Campaign
2005), booklet, Beirut, AUB archives. Mouhandess, N0.27 (2011), pp.16-20.
p.280. 25. Ibid. 35. R. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction
16. http://www.greenstonesal.com/ 26. The Venice Charter for the in Architecture (2nd éd.). (New York: The
LArmonial/Overview.html Conservation and Restoration of Museum of Modem Art, 1977), as quoted in
17. http://www.bernardkhoury.com/ Monuments and Sites, Article 7. Richards, Facadism, p.49.
projectDetails.aspx?ID=i26 27. http://www.an-architecture. 36. For a detailed and comprehensive
18. G. Lynn, "An Advanced Form of com/2010/09/preservation-facadism.html discussion of facadism from an
Movement," Architectural Design, N0.67 28. F. Loyer and C. Schmuckle-Mollard, architectural and townscape perspectives,
(1997), p.54, as quoted in M. Schwarzer, eds., Façadisme et identité urbaine [Facadism see Richards, Facadism, ch.1-2.
"The Contemporary City in Four and Urban Identity] (Paris: Edition du 37. Upton, "Authentic Anxieties," p.303.
Movements," Journal of Urban Design, V0I.5 Patrimoine, 2001). 38. A. Van Loo, "From Construction to
No.2 (2000), pp.136. 29. For a detailed analysis, see Saliba, Beirut Déstructuration of Cities," in Loyer and
19. M. Bell and S.T. Leong, "Introduction," City Center Recovery, Ch.5: "From Khan Schmuckle-Mollard, eds., Façadisme et
in M. Bell and S.T. Leong, eds., Slow Space to Office Building," and Ch.6: "Evolving identité urbaine, pp.234-36.
(New York: Monacelli, 1998), as referred to Frontages." 39. G.G. Simeone, "Brussels or the
in Schwarzer, "The Contemporary City in 30. Accordingly, a set of street wall controls Loneliness of Facades," in Loyer and
Four Movements," p.136. was articulated to ensure continuity Schmuckle-Mollard, eds., Façadisme et
20. Built in 1853 as the "Imperial Barracks" between the existing historic context and identité urbaine, p.241.
to symbolize Ottoman state power in a new development. Building height was 40. Ibid.
provincial capital, it underwent several confined to 24 meters with a horizontal 41. G. El Kadi and D. Elkerdany, "Belle
semantic switches, first by being converted expression line between 6 and 8 meters Epoque Cairo: The Politics of Refurbishing
into a "governmental palace" (serail), delimiting the base of the building, and the Downtown Business District," in
then into the headquarters of the French a cornice line between 19 and 20 meters D. Singerman and P. Amar, eds., Cairo
governor during the Mandate period, delimiting the body of the building. A Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban
and finally to the presidential and the colonnade was a required feature on the Space in the New Middle East (Cairo:
prime minister's headquarters following Maarad axis, while a setback or a jetty of American University in Cairo Press, 2006),
independence. 1.7 meters was allowed for the remaining P-345
21. Built between 1869 and 1873, College streets.
42. Ibid., p.370.
Hall was the first building of the campus, 31. For recent articles illustrating this view,
and was particularly famous for its see Daher, "Swift Urban Heritage Donor
landmark clock tower. Originally, College Recipes and Neoliberal Restructuring"; and
Hall was a multifunctional structure, C. Larkin, "Beyond the War? The Lebanese
including housing, classrooms, the library, Postmemory Experience," International
a chapel, a faculty lounge, and dormitories. Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.42 N0.4
College Hall was the ultimate symbol of the (2010), pp.615-35.
university. College Hall was blown up in an
explosion on November 8,1991.

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