BANK HQ 01
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Project type: Bank headquarter
Size:
Status: Aborted 2014
Forming a triangular site on one of the most visible corners of Beirut’s Verdun Commercial district, this proposal for JTB Bank replaces its existing inefficient headquarter building while developing a vacant contiguous lot. The program called for two separate but connected buildings, thus allowing for horizontal expansion: the first building housing the bank headquarters and the second, a commercial center for rent.
The biggest challenge was to develop a design that maximized return on investment to justify the project facing unfavorable real estate costs.
Two contributing factors to the viability of the project were taking advantage of the high exposure of the site to a newly developed mall; the other being advanced display technologies. The combination of both was a major contributing result to the success of the project: the 66m x 38m office building façade (consisting of windows & display screens) facing the mall, results in the largest dynamic advertising wall in the world.