June 20, 2006

Doors of Beirut

Beirut, being a mix of Oriental and Mediterranean architecture, has some amazing doors and windows. Especially the older parts of town, such as Achrafiya, Gemayze, Basta and basically all the neighborhoods that are situated around downtown (not downtown itself) have often beautiful old buildings. All that is quickly disappearing, as the wrecking ball - despite the poor economic situation although I am beginning to doubt that now - is very active these days. What comes in their place are highrise blocks that are designed by engineers rather than architects, it seems, or if they are architects, they have little interest in preserving any sort of tradition, or Oriental/Mediterranean look to it all.

Lois, a friend, and I used to get out on Sundays and roam around these neighborhoods and take pictures of doors, windows and facades. I have only posted some of the doors here. I stole three, but the garage door is mine. Fouad posted the same door recently on his blog, it seems we're traveling the same route..



Maybe I'll post another one on windows in a while.

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