Contractors have broken ground on what is to be the tallest building in Beirut, Sama Beirut:
[A] 50-story luxury residential tower in the Sodeco area. Launched in mid-August by Sama developer Antonios Projects, it is expected to be completed by 2014. The tower will rise from a 5,000 square meter plot, of which the actual building will occupy 1,200 square meters, leaving the rest for a private garden.
Actually, the ground-breaking building will also be breaking ground into something never seen before in Lebanon, Green Buildings:
The architects are Elie and Randya Gebrayel from the Erga group, who have designed the project with LEED accreditation in mind.
In essence, a building that will waste less and use less energy than a conventional structure. Well done! This actually follows on the heel of Hayek Groups’s launch of none-other than, Green Tower, Lebanon’s first green residential building (though not LEED certified).
Sama Beirut Ad by Impact BBDO - From jazarah!
i wonder if those big companies working for sama beirut knows that they r constructors and not devastators!
i live in a small 50ies building of 6 floors just on the toes of sama beirut , and believe me it smells….
you cannot imagine the amount of trash that flies over our heads, making this respectable neighborhood in a bin state of living…you name it….polystyrene that clogs everywhere and make the roof an endless pool flooding all the building….the cans and left over of all the workers that enjoys the elevation while eating their tunas mostly….and the best is those iron big 10cm nails, the cement pieces, and lastly my poor car that has now chicken pox from cement tatoos that is not going even with extreme polishing….
we r living the armageddon luxury era!
yeah we called them many times….they r very skilled and polite answering, but when it comes to action ….nothing is done but disdain….
i personally told them that i dont want compensations, or nice words, i just want them to take into consideration the life that is going down there in hell thanks to them now!
i reminded them of their duties….but it seems money have no ears…
i feel myself obliged to write this here coz i want to share this other side of the sack of beirut….everybody talks of the destruction of old building….but the real killing is when you insult the people living in those buildings ignoring them.
in the end, i salute all the professional engineers , architects and business men…..but in my opinion if they dont start taking into consideration the human factor while building, a holy rule to become in their syndicates, their luxurious ideas will stay fake, unfair and doomed to become freaks of the city….they will be building only rocks, not environement as they pretend….
enough botoxing this society … lets CARE about everything, about everyone…. for a change…
Thanks for the info and update on the project. I do believe that LEED certified buildings must be built sustainably and with minimal damage to the surrounding environment – so it would be interesting to see if the building does score a LEED rating.