Date: 2015 to present
Client: Private
Area: 1000 m2
Status: Ongoing
Beirut 1952, Lucien Cavro and Antoine Tabet complete Immeuble de l’Union on Spears
Street, a project that embodies the spirit of a golden era. Beirut 2017, a renovation is at stake. On the the ground floor, the lobby now extends front to back from Spears to the Salim Boustany creating a major transparent spine-through.
To maximize the use of the deep plates of the building, the six first floors are readapted
as office spaces while the two top floors become bespoke residential simplex and duplex
typologies.
Architecturally, the project maintains all of its external features almost intact, in counterpoint several landscaping interventions transform and renew the perception of the building. Extended planted terraces on the residential roof floors reproduce the Beiruti urban villa experience, while trees and high green shrubs inhabit loggias and balconies of the office floors. We wish to create a different perception of the building at night, where the lit outdoors spaces, with the highlighted landscape interventions transform the perception of the building. We wish to achieve a contemporary take on what was once a masterful accomplishment, its life as a famous icon now hopefully extended.