THE DOME OF THE CITY CENTER

Opposite Saifi Village, on the other side of the square, one is surprised by this imposing greyish oval-shaped dome riddled with bullet holes. It is a former cinema that was part of the City Center shopping mall financed by the developers Samadi and Salha. Built from 1965 to 1968 by the architect Joseph-Philippe Karam and the engineer Georges Tabet, it is called the Blob, the Mushroom, the Dome or the Egg... The building contains 1,000 places and is 24 m long and 11 m high. Exhibitions and performances sometimes take place there. The opening of the Louis Vuitton boutique in Beirut, for example, was celebrated there in the summer of 2010. Threatened, petitions and groups are mobilizing to save this remnant of war that is part of the Beirut landscape. The Save the Egg movement was created in 2009 for this purpose. Architects Philippe Stark and Jean Nouvel have come forward to save it. But to no avail, since there is no text formally protecting it. It has been sold to investors from the United Arab Emirates, and rumour has it that it is about to be destroyed. Threats have been repeated many times, but for the time being, the "Egg" is still there and continues to remind Beirutis of the horrors of the civil war. Its visit is forbidden, but the October 17 revolutionaries occupied the premises, allowing the old cinema to host exhibitions by Beirut artists, who in February 2020 were visiting freely. However, there is a possibility that the authorities may close the building again.