Building Alhamra (and cinema)

Notes

The project was designed by George Rais for Sehnaoui and Arida. The original design comprised two blocks. Only the one on Hamra Street was actually built. The building was almost finished when, on the neighboring site, the construction of the Ilyas Murr Building (known as Horse-Shoe), designed by Bahij Makdisi and Associates (K. Schayer and W. Adib) started.
The Al-Hamra Cinema was inaugurated on October 5, 1957. It was the first cinema outside the city center. Rais was assisted by decorator Roger Cachard in the design of the movie-theater (for seats, colors, curtains of the cinema, etc. Cachard had been in Egypt before he came to Lebanon. He designed many shops in Beirut, such as the famous Aiglon cloth shop next door, in the Horse Shoe building). The final lighting system on the side walls of the movie theater was added later, hence a design that allowed for apparent tubes spread from a central disk, offering various colors of lighting from behind.
According to Mr. Dabaghi, the owner of the cinema, the owner of the Alhamra building refused Schayer's proposal to open the wall separating the Alhamra building and the Murr building at the ground floor level and offer a wider perspective for strollers.
(George Arbid)

Sources

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