Building Arida (Galerie Boutros)

Notes

This is one of the finest apartment buildings of the 1950s in Beirut with its siting, layout, massing, materials and detail refinement. It is one of the most important works of renowned architect George Rais, author of the Pan Am building, Cinema Al-Hamra and other iconic buildings.
In this apartment building, George Rais and his partner Theo Canaan took full advantage of a triangular site with a T-shaped building. The architects had wanted to coordinate with Najjar, the owner of the parcel next door (see Najjar building by Ferneiny & Lymberis) in order to have a street run between the two lots, and benefit from each other's setback. Mr. Najjar refused, hence a street that runs under the Arida building, linking the two adjoining streets. Some of the details resemble the housing project that Rais and Canaan did in Tripoli for IPC in 1949. They pertain, for example, to the reduction of the massing through the framing of part of the building, creating thus a hierarchy in the reading. Other elements that are also found in the IPC housing project are the S-shaped profiles of the parapets. They recall the Highpoint Apartment Buildings at Highgate by Berthold Lubetkin and Tekton that Rais may have visited during his studies in London.
(George Arbid)

Sources

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