Beirut's architectural heritage erased by modern towers

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

BEIRUT (AFP) — The Ottoman-style mansions, with Venetian windows, arches and lavish gardens that once epitomised Beirut are being levelled one after the other as high-rises mushroom across the capital.

"Now everyone is looking for towers, because they realise that above the tenth floor you can see the sea," says Mona Hallak, an architect and an activist with the Association for the Protection of Sites and Old Buildings.

"In 20 years' time, this won't be the case because you will have lots of towers everywhere."

As a result, landlords are rushing to take advantage of the high prices now being offered for the land on which their ancestral homes are sitting.

The pattern is set: the home is demolished, its traditional garden destroyed and the land sold...