The Tasbahji Building is a distinguished multipurpose urban building located on a prime location on Bliss Street facing the American University of Beirut campus. It sits at a corner of 3 streets. The ground floor level on Bliss Street is lined with shops and the cinema entrance, while the apartments’ entrance lobby is found one level higher to the back on Khalidy Street. Following the building code, the 800 seat cinema is found at the core of the plot, its roof being free of construction above it.
The building wraps around that void along the three streets and offers side walls to the neighboring plot on the fourth side. The apartments consisting of studios and one or two bedroom apartments are accessed through open-air passageways lit and ventilated from the courtyard side.
The building displays a mastery of detailing and use of materials. NB: The passageways are lined with asbestos panels that should be removed with extreme care due to health hazards resulting from the asbestos dust.
(George Arbid)
Cinema Edison was inaugurated in 1960 (according to Mohammad Soueid, Ya Fu'adi, p. 73)

Wassek Adib