Being
talkative and sociable by nature, it is very easy for me to engage in a
conversation with someone particularly if the person seems to be approachable. On
my way back to Beirut from Paris, I met Riccardo who is a UN Electoral Team
Communication expert. We chatted for a couple of hours when I would rather not
be forced to listen to the macho douche bags sitting next to me whom are coming up
with lame jokes. The next day, I had the pleasure to meet up with him again and
have a walk in the small streets of Hamra and a short visit of the AUB campus.
He said, “I love old buildings” while looking up at the rusted balcony
balustrade of some old tired buildings in the commercial neighborhood at the
corner of Bliss Street. I was surprised to hear this coming from a foreigner. I mean I always wondered what it would feel
like for a foreigner to come to Lebanon—well okay we are not arguing about the
having fun part—and have no exquisite architecture for the eyes to see and
delight. Besides the high new modern buildings in Beirut, there is the old and badly maintained buildings or the far more polished
Beirut Souks that was recently built with a nostalgic twist to Lebanese architecture. There is nothing more beautiful than the
marble and stone structure of the buildings in New York City and even the many
architectural style eras that has witnessed Paris from the Romanesque style of
the Church in Saint-Germain-des-Pres to the Gothic Cathedrale-de-Notre-Dame and
the 20th century Louvre’s glass pyramids. I am thinking about these
old buildings in Hamra or around Beirut city… not old enough to be called a monument
if it had potential. Perhaps, this was torn down by the civil war long time
ago. I am not speaking of the age-old Roman Hippodrome or the Roman bath relics either... Just old buildings but not thaat old.
Why old buildings are beautiful? I was perplexed. I asked, “You don’t think
that old buildings are… “Ugly”? “No…” “But look at the infrastructure it’s even
really bad”, I said pointing towards the electricity cable hanging from the
balcony. Riccardo’s answer was pretty much convincing; he said, “I like old
buildings because I see potential for renovation. And renovation is beautiful,
you fix something that is broken or tired and you give it back value … progress
is continuous it is not a process that stops... a city that has perfect new
buildings does not mean it reached a high position and it stops there.”

On
the next day, I chose to walk back from my bank to my house in Jounieh—and that
was a walk of about 20-30 minutes. I did not let the cab wait for me (my car was
at the garage). I enjoyed this walk, it was as if I was still strolling around
in NYC or Paris, and I gazed over the old residential buildings with a new
perspective. I thought “old buildings are beautiful”. There is nothing shameful
in old buildings in fact, they are just like wilted flowers waiting to be
watered and revived again.
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