The battle for Beirut’s skyline
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/05/battle-beirut-skyline-150526103734561.html
Civil activists have long lamented the government’s lack of concern over preserving Beirut’s architectural heritage, accusing it of prioritising lucrative real estate deals over the more expensive task of conserving the remaining Ottoman and French mandate-era buildings across the city.
The most recent statistic from 2013 showed that 80 percent of the buildings, originally listed as historical landmarks after the war ended in 1990, have since been destroyed.
Yet calls by NGOs such as Save Beirut Heritage and the Association for the Protection of Lebanese Heritage for the state to spend more money and time on the issue have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Instead, the task of keeping such houses from ruin and demolition has fallen to individuals and non-state actors.
