The brief

The Lebanese Government aimed to achieve three objectives:

• Re-building a landmark of Beirut that had been demolished during the war
• Designing a 50,000-spectator stadium compliant with international standards, with the intent of boosting Lebanon’s candidacy to host the 1997 Pan Arab Games
• Spurring the growth of the sports economy in Lebanon

Our response

Laceco responded to the above objectives by:

• Designing an urban framework (the “Olympic city”), a component of which was the 50,000-spectator stadium and multipurpose hall
• Reintegrating the stadium into the urban composition of Beirut through a landscaped piazza that extended from the project to Beirut’s seafront
• Conceiving a stadium that has the features of ancient Roman amphitheaters, thus allowing the client to use it for non-athletic programming such as cultural events
• Designing a project that is fully compliant with international competition standards, thus enabling Lebanon to submit its candidacy to the 1997 Pan Arab Games and 2000 AFC Asian Cup
• Optimizing cost to enable a financially constrained government to fund the project