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Bank of Beirut Headquarters

Beirut Central District, Lebanon
Commercial
Aborted 2004

The Bank of Beirut building located on Riad el-Solh Street (banks’ street) is a late 1960’s modern structure. We were commissioned to rehabilitate its façade. The building’s structure is literally translated onto the order of its facades limiting the possibility of major architectural intervention. We propose a curtain wall cladding, starting from the sidewalk all the way up to the top of the building. On the smooth glass finish of the skin, a black matt film is applied on the entire façade. Voided out on each of the 245 windows, the film forms a pattern on the whole façade. Each individual void is shaped by the trajectory of an automobile windshield-wiper which will clean each window of the bank. In evaluating our systems which are borrowed form the automobile industry, they are cheaper and more effective than the conventional mechanized alternatives for cleaning curtain walls.