Welcome to the New Gezairi Building on the Beirut Campus
Dear members of our LAU community,
As the new 2022 Spring semester starts tomorrow, our School of Architecture and Design (SArD) students, faculty and staff will call home a new facility on the Beirut campus, the Gezairi building.
This new LAU facility will significantly enhance the student learning experience. It will allow them to thrive in a state-of-the-art environment with common facilities for the school, foundation studios, fine arts laboratories, fashion design studios, graphic design, architecture and interior design studios in addition to institutes and offices. This building also houses additional common instructional spaces to meet the University’s academic needs and expansion plans. I have attached for your convenience a PowerPoint presentation as a summarized description of the new facility.
The endeavor, which started in 2012, with shipping magnate Mona Bawarshi’s Gezairi Transport company donating part of the cost to acquire the building, has now been completed in very challenging and difficult circumstances. The last two years were particularly tasking as our team worked with consultants, contractors and suppliers to find creative solutions to supply chain issues brought on by the worsening economic conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The building now expands the Beirut campus with an additional built-up area of around 19,000 square meters. With this building, LAU adds another sustainable facility with Excellence for Design and Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certification for 20% in Energy Savings, 30% in Water Savings, 26% Less Embodied Energy in Materials.
Above all, this is another unwavering testament that, despite the current economic meltdown, LAU will not be deterred from safeguarding the highest quality standards of academic education in Lebanon.
While we will have another rendezvous to celebrate this accomplishment with a fitting inauguration, I take this opportunity to express the gratitude of our university to all those who have dedicated their time, skills and energy to completing this milestone, especially the Facilities Management department, the School of Architecture and Design, the IT department , the Business Services department, and the Finance department.
Let us all celebrate this milestone.
Michel E. Mawad, M.D.
President