Archinect - News 2024-12-23T21:59:49-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/118970896/oliver-wainwright-takes-a-closer-look-at-beirut-s-downtown-redevelopment Oliver Wainwright takes a closer look at Beirut's downtown redevelopment Alexander Walter 2015-01-22T15:43:00-05:00 >2015-02-02T19:04:53-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/js/jsyfac3tl4tiicss.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Two decades after civil war blew the Lebanese capital to rubble, the city centre boasts immaculately rebuilt streets lined with Gucci and Prada stores &ndash; but the whole place is strangely deserted [...] the resulting place feels less souk than Duty Free airport lounge. It is a monotonous world of more swanky high street brands, from Burberry to Tag Heuer, staffed by idle shop assistants awaiting the promised customer footfall that has yet to arrive.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><head><meta></head></html>