Suliman S. Olayan School of Business

View from the corniche.

Project Details

• Project Name: Suliman S. Olayan School of Business
• Client: American University of Beirut
• Project Type: Architectural design
• Principal Designer/s: Rodolfo Machado
• Design Team: Rami el Samahy, Makoto Abe, John Clegg, Markus Elkatsha, Edwin Goodell, James Gresalfi, Seiee Kim, Stephen Lee, Roberto de Oliveira Castro, Mark Pasnik, Todd Piotrowski, Steven Poon, Theodore Touloukian
• Date of completion of project: 2008
• Location of site: Beirut, Lebanon
• Site Area: 50,000 SF
• Built-up Area: 135,000 SF
• Cost of Construction/Execution: $17 million

A perspective of the public plaza at the corniche level.

Words from the architect

Selected following an international invited competition, the Olayan School of Business results from focused attention on its program, the production and the transmission of knowledge, the quality of its interior life, and the specific particularities of the school, its personality, and its people.

The scheme proposes, first, a large green oval carefully located on the axis of existing steps that will become a major access to the sea, connecting students from the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and beyond to the corniche's elevated edge. Second, the proposal creates an L-shaped four-story building with a traversable ground plane consisting of four enclosed pieces. These are grouped around the School's central space, a triangular open courtyard. Porous and transparent, this floor promotes collegiality, containing the school's lobby, auditorium, cafe and terrace, as well as student facilities, mailboxes, and related social programs.

View into central core.

To clarify way-finding and the building's legibility, the undergraduate education facilities are located on the second floor, graduate education - the MBA program - on the third, and the Executive Education program on the fourth floor, which also contains the Dean's Office in its corner. The triangular courtyard joins these three levels, and each overlooks the space, enriching it with their different lives.

View from southern edge of the East Oval.

A screen-like skin of limestone blocks, a material that is characteristic of the campus and region, wraps the building. The openings in the screen are tighter on the lower floor to provide shading for classrooms, and more open on the upper floor to capture views of the Mediterranean from faculty offices.

Credits

• Text, Machado and Silvetti Associates
• Photographs ©Machado and Silvetti Associates