Solidere Destroys 3 Buildings Surrounding Magen Avraham Synagogue in Wadi Abu Jmil

[fidelio]

This is a picture of the cluster of buildings destroyed, posted yesterday in L'orientlejour.
Apart from the synagogue, the three residential building are of a common charcter found all over the place in Beirut, and buildings from that period are not an uncommon sight although they are getting rare. From what i an tell from the pictures, i find it pretty hard to restore those buildings.

However, Bernard Khoury, (architect who designed B018, Centrale, Yabani and other buildings) had a clever solution for his "Centrale" building straight out of the textbooks of Solidere where if any building from that period that is in danger of collapse and that the owner wants to preserve, a metallic structure should be fixed on its facades as a structural reinforcement. Here's the result:



Solidere probably owns those buildings and the lot on which they were built so it's pretty logical for them to "clean" the lot and build more square meters.

[Genius]

Originally Posted by fidelio

This is a picture of the cluster of buildings destroyed, posted yesterday in L'orientlejour.
Apart from the synagogue, the three residential building are of a common charcter found all over the place in Beirut, and buildings from that period are not an uncommon sight although they are getting rare. From what i an tell from the pictures, i find it pretty hard to restore those buildings.

However, Bernard Khoury, (architect who designed B018, Centrale, Yabani and other buildings) had a clever solution for his "Centrale" building straight out of the textbooks of Solidere where if any building from that period that is in danger of collapse and that the owner wants to preserve, a metallic structure should be fixed on its facades as a structural reinforcement. Here's the result:



Solidere probably owns those buildings and the lot on which they were built so it's pretty logical for them to "clean" the lot and build more square meters.

Its quite sad to the the high rises that contain absolutely no "soul" and charm in the background :(

The city is loosing its character for sure, Anything can be restored Fidelio, they have restored older and more damaged buildings,

The danger is the "MONOPOLY" that this govt and previous govts have created in many sectors, mainly SOLIDERE that has the entire rights in the heart and core of Beirut.

I remember how many people fought the destruction of our heritage at the beginning and how many valuable streets and buildings were erased to let the sharks build the huge towers for only $$$$

Sad moment in our modern history ... we never anyway knew how to build a beautoful country, what remains old in Beirut is the leftovers of the Turks and French ...

We built Dora mountain and alikes ...

[fidelio]

Originally Posted by Genius

Its quite sad to the the high rises that contain absolutely no "soul" and charm in the background :(

The city is loosing its character for sure, Anything can be restored Fidelio, they have restored older and more damaged buildings,

The danger is the "MONOPOLY" that this govt and previous govts have created in many sectors, mainly SOLIDERE that has the entire rights in the heart and core of Beirut.

I remember how many people fought the destruction of our heritage at the beginning and how many valuable streets and buildings were erased to let the sharks build the huge towers for only $$$$

Sad moment in our modern history ... we never anyway knew how to build a beautoful country, what remains old in Beirut is the leftovers of the Turks and French ...

We built Dora mountain and alikes ...

Genius, it's a very mercantile world out there, nobody really wants to invest in restoring an old building, it's a bad investment of money. Sure, everything can be restored, but it all comes down to the cost.
Besides, those buildings are not of an "exceptional" architectural value.
If i was advising Solidere on this issue, i would have probably told them to destroy 2 of them and restore one in a way to incorporate it to the final project. But still, it's a long shot, because the lot is probably worth a lot of money.

[hannaalsayssa]

Originally Posted by Genius

I am sure the doicuments of these buildings exist somewhere. We can dig out the documents and make a case ... we dont know what is their value yet

Again, filming is banned probably to hide their act (we are assuming .. we still dont know ..) i am not at all, defending them, but we cannot attack without prrofs and strong evidence

They were illegally acquired, however the people lost their judicial case. It it was up to me, i ll give back Solidere to their owners ... HOWEVER, these buildings are NOW owned by Solidere and the only way we would have been able to defend their destruction is to find out if they were classified. We dont even know who were the original owners ...

FIRST MOVE is to acquire the status of the buildings before their destruction .... there is plenty of time to see what we can do after, attacking without any knowledge is the worst we can do to Beirut !!

How long do we need to repeat that all what Dracula did in downtown was to appropriate people's land and properties illegally. They sued him, but
he owned the judiciary and now siniouritta still owns them to date.

As per lawsuits, the owner of ST George had some good judgments to his favour, but could not enforce it. They forcefully appropriated the parking opposite his hotel that he sand filled to erect the monster statue.

GOD, so many apologists for Dracula.

[Genius]

Originally Posted by fidelio

Genius, it's a very mercantile world out there, nobody really wants to invest in restoring an old building, it's a bad investment of money. Sure, everything can be restored, but it all comes down to the cost.
Besides, those buildings are not of an "exceptional" architectural value.
If i was advising Solidere on this issue, i would have probably told them to destroy 2 of them and restore one in a way to incorporate it to the final project. But still, it's a long shot, because the lot is probably worth a lot of money.

It all goes down to the priorities ...
I understand the value of the land etc etc, the problem is classification, i dont think making the downtown similar to american cities/Golf cities is a good idea. Making the water front high rises, instead of making it look like the mediteranean cities (Nice, Cannes ... ) is a huuge mistake !!

But i would love to see some legal docs concerning all the buildings and lands on Solidere, how everything was evaluated ..

How about these 3 buildings in question ? Sure you evaluated them .. but legal docs? age ? etc

[fidelio]

Originally Posted by Genius

It all goes down to the priorities ...
I understand the value of the land etc etc, the problem is classification, i dont think making the downtown similar to american cities/Golf cities is a good idea. Making the water front high rises, instead of making it look like the mediteranean cities (Nice, Cannes ... ) is a huuge mistake !!

But i would love to see some legal docs concerning all the buildings and lands on Solidere, how everything was evaluated ..

How about these 3 buildings in question ? Sure you evaluated them .. but legal docs? age ? etc

yes, i agree with you that Beirut's coastal line character is a disaster. But it has always been like this, mainly because of the absence of good urban planning in the fifties and sixties when most of Beirut's coastal line was built. So Solidere can't be blamed for that, they are only responsible for their area which includes a portion of the coastline.

The Solidere's coastline is classified as a highrise zone (Marina Towers for example) , Much like what's planned for the other Marina (Joseph Khoury).
Genius, you have to put yourself in a CEO's shoes, you will most definitely want to maximize profit by building more square meters. It's not up to corporations to care about patrimony or historical heritage, they can't really be blamed for that.

The ones to be blamed however are the institutions in Lebanon that care about those issues and the civil society for not spreading awareness and for not putting enough pressure on the governments at that time.

[Osiris]

Was the Magen Avraham Synagogue destroyed??

[fidelio]

Originally Posted by Osiris

Was the Magen Avraham Synagogue destroyed??

No, just the 3 buildings that surround it.
I heard once that some european institution donated money to restore the synagogue, but i don't know if that's true, I'll check with Solidere.

[Genius]

Originally Posted by fidelio

yes, i agree with you that Beirut's coastal line character is a disaster. But it has always been like this, mainly because of the absence of good urban planning in the fifties and sixties when most of Beirut's coastal line was built. So Solidere can't be blamed for that, they are only responsible for their area which includes a portion of the coastline.

The Solidere's coastline is classified as a highrise zone (Marina Towers for example) , Much like what's planned for the other Marina (Joseph Khoury).
Genius, you have to put yourself in a CEO's shoes, you will most definitely want to maximize profit by building more square meters. It's not up to corporations to care about patrimony or historical heritage, they can't really be blamed for that.

The ones to be blamed however are the institutions in Lebanon that care about those issues and the civil society for not spreading awareness and for not putting enough pressure on the governments at that time.

What is to be blamed is the capitalists completely controlling and running the govt. Back to the feudal problem.

Western countries have strict rules by govt which are ruled by normal people ... Even Microsoft and Bill Gates in the US abide by the rules and loose judicial cases (and this is a country rules by capitalists ....)

the disasters are numerous and repetitive, what is needed is awarness and education to the people that cannot break free from sectarian feudality ...

We need another Ottoman empire .. Funny that Beirut had all the charm from their Era, the french refused to "develop" the country !!! I ll try to dig out the documents i had about the architecture of Beirut ...

[goatlord]

Originally Posted by Haruun

When will they stop destroying Lebanon's identity? Beirut is not Dubai,

No man, you can ONLY WISH Lebanon was Dubai and had an economy like Dubai. The real face of Lebanon right now is a picture of the empty rotten tents in downtown.