Stepping up efforts to save Beiruts walkways

BEIRUT: Ambling along the narrow streets of Beiruts Mar Mikhael and Geitawi neighborhoods on a balmy morning, masters students from Balamand Universitys Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts lead groups of design enthusiasts on a heritage-esque tour of the areas famous stairs.

One guide tells stories of the family who built the well-known Vendome Stairs named after a long-gone theater at their base and another recounts tales told by residents about a large stone in the middle of a flight north of Roum Hospital. The story goes that a drunken man comes every night to try to move it to the top but to no avail.

From secret steps tucked into the entrances of old buildings to short, wide flights shaded by webs of cables and serving as the only outlets for some apartments, the stairs are a defining feature of the capitals hilly eastern areas.

The guided stroll, led by students Honeine Laeticia, Kallab Cyril, Salamoun Elias and Rouhana Joyce, and their instructor Diala Lteif, was intended to raise awareness of the imminent threat to the steps created by a slew of new developments.

The main problem is a lack of preservation. None of the buildings along the tour or in that neighborhood are classified as heritage sites by the government, said Lteif, who taught a semester-long course focusing on the stairs as part of ALBAs new global design program.

Letif added that the students had conducted onsite research by interviewing residents in preparation for the tours, which were part of last weeks Beirut Design Week and were accompanied by an open workshop to brainstorm ways to protect the neighborhoods traditional character.

In the program at ALBA, we look at design as a process to solve a problem ... and the users [of the design] are the main focus, she explained. Since we are contextually embedded in the city around us, it made sense for us to look at the design problems we face in the city.

Lteifs students hit the streets to talk with residents of Mar Mikhael and Geitawi, many of whom were older and had lived in the area for decades, about the stairs and the lack of heritage protection.

She said what the students discovered as they began to explore the neighborhoods outraged them. Seemingly on every corner, towers were being built, causing real estate developers to seek new outlets for the additional vehicular traffic such apartments bring.

The draft rent law recently passed by Parliament, under which old rents would be raised incrementally and tenants could be evicted with no compensation after nine years, threatens more upheaval, as does the controversial Fouad Boutros Highway project. The proposed road would pass from Ashrafieh to the port, with at least one flight of historic stairs, several traditional buildings and a large public garden being demolished in the process.

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Stepping up efforts to save Beiruts walkways