Beirut Reborn: The Restoration and Development of the Central District

Angus Gavin, Ramez Maluf

Wiley, Jul 14, 1996 - Architecture - 144 pages

The renewal of Beirut's city center is currently the world's most challenging urban regeneration project. Led by the private sector, its institutional framework is pioneering. The planning and implementation embrace many issues: infrastructure renewal, urban archeology, new development and the restoration of historic fabric, the creation of a social arena where the city can reconnect, and the relaunching of the Lebanese capital, once pre-eminent in the Middle East, into a stabilizing world of emerging opportunities.

About the author

About the authors The authors of this volume have been closely associated with the project for the reconstruction of the Beirut Central District for a number of years, both before and after the May 1994 establishment of Solidere, the private-sector company developing the heart of the Lebanese capital. Angus Gavin received his architectural degrees from Cambridge University and a Masters in Urban Design from Harvard. He has practiced as an urban planner and designer both in the Middle East, Turkey, Greece, West Africa and the UK, and has also taught at the University of Virginia and at the Bartlett School, University College, London. Gavin's experience in the Arab world has included the planning and implementation of new city and new community projects, the urbanization and development of several large reclamation schemes and historic district action plans in Saudi Arabia, a number of Gulf States and in Amman, Jordan. Prior to his involvement in the postwar reconstruction of central Beirut, he was Principal Urban Designer and a Development Manager in the Royal Docks area of London Docklands. He moved to Beirut in 1992 to take up the position of leader of the consultant's planning team responsible for preparation of the Master Plan for the Central District. Ramez Maluf was editor in chief of Lebanon's English-language newspaper, The Daily Star, during Lebanon's war years; he later took on the same responsibilities with the regional publication, The Middle East Times. Maluf has also taught at the Lebanese-American University, the American University of Beirut and at the Lebanese University. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Oklahoma where he obtained his doctorate.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Beirut Reborn: The Restoration and Development of the Central District
• Authors: Angus Gavin, Ramez Maluf
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Wiley, 1996
• ISBN: 1854904817, 9781854904812
• Length: 144 pages
• Subjects: Architecture / General