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Elie Aramouny

@lancearamouny

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TV Executive Producer, Music Freak, Radio Host , Movie Buff, Soul Man, Art/Design/Architecture Aficionado, World Traveller, Pet Lover.

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Beirut has more stories to tell.

Season 2 of Beirut Narrative, hosted by Elie Aramouny, starts this Sunday on SHFT.

New chapters. New perspectives. Same city, seen differently.

Stay tuned. by @lancearamouny

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24 days ago

Today’s Time Machine takes us back to the 1960s, when theatre and music lovers would queue at the entrance of the newly built Piccadilly Theatre in vibrant, radiant Beirut.

Run by the Mamiche & Itani company, it soon established itself as (much like London’s West End) the stage for the latest musicals, plays, and concerts, accommodating around 700 crimson seats that shimmered under its soft lights.

Designed in 1965 by architect William Sednaoui, the nine-floor building—with its theatre, retail, and office spaces—rapidly rose as one of Hamra’s most glamorous landmarks. Inside, its velvet curtains and refined modernist details set the mood for nights of magic.

On its stage, Fairouz enchanted with her timeless voice, while Sabah lit up the crowd with her golden presence. Cairo’s brightest stars, Souad Hosni and Omar Sharif, brought Egyptian allure, while international icons like Dalida and Julio Iglesias further cemented Beirut’s place on the global cultural map.

Later, Ziad Rahbani would use its stage for his unforgettable plays on Lebanon’s wars and society, weaving satire and truth into unforgettable performances.

But the theatre’s fate mirrored Beirut’s own turmoil. During the civil war, the Piccadilly opened and closed with the tides of conflict—at one point even serving as an office for Yasser Arafat. By the late 1980s, audiences dwindled, and though it flickered back to life in the early 1990s with plays by Marwan Najjar, the curtains soon fell again. In 2000, a fire consumed what remained, extinguishing its brilliance.

Even in recent years, there were whispers of hope. In 2022, efforts were made to restore and revive the Piccadilly, to bring back its stage and spirit—but those plans, like so many dreams in Beirut, fell through.

Today, the Piccadilly lives only in memory and in faded photographs: crimson seats, velvet drapes, and the echo of applause that once gave Beirut its golden nights. Its absence is more than the loss of a theatre—it is a reminder of a city that once believed in the magic of art and culture, and how fragile that magic can be.

#picadillybeirut #theatre #hamrastreet #stories #history #heritage #beirut #lebanon taken in Hamra Street, Beirut by @lancearamouny

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a year ago

Vaulted Journeys was created from a long-standing passion for architecture, heritage, and the stories embedded within the built environment.

Its purpose is to document, interpret, and celebrate structures that define our cultural and urban landscapes whether classical, modernist, or part of Lebanon’s fragile architectural legacy.

Every house, villa, and historic landmark reflects layers of human experience. These places carry narratives of evolution, creativity, and resilience, offering a deeper understanding of the societies that shaped them.

Vaulted Journeys seeks to highlight these narratives through thoughtful storytelling, visual documentation, and contextual exploration.

By observing the details, cracked walls, fading colors, restored facades, or bold modern interventions, Vaulted Journeys aims to transform architectural spaces into meaningful reflections of history, identity, and collective memory.

This platform goes beyond showcasing buildings; it is a continuous exploration of how places endure, adapt, and remain relevant.

Ultimately, Vaulted Journeys is a tribute to architecture as a living record of who we were, who we are, and what we aspire to become.

#vaultedjourneys #architrcture #architecturelovers #stories #heritage #letthejourneybegin taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @lancearamouny

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a year ago

CAPITOLE: BEIRUT HAD PLANS FOR THE NIGHT

If you grew up in Beirut in the 1950s and 60s, chances are the name Capitole needs no introduction. A film, an evening out, a meeting in Riad el Solh Square. For generations, this address was part of going downtown.

Known as the Asseily Building, it was designed in 1947 by Giorgio Ricci and Georges Araman. Its pale stone façades, strong vertical lines and orderly windows give it a striking presence. Rounded corners soften its imposing scale, while the small rooftop tower makes its silhouette instantly recognisable.

Hôtel Le Capitole occupied the upper floors, offering 120 rooms and suites. Its brochure advertised an American bar, a ballroom with a live band, a tea room and a roof garden overlooking Beirut, the mountains and the sea. Long before its later nightlife chapter, this was already an address for dinner and dancing above the city.

Below, Cinema Capitole welcomed filmgoers into an auditorium with marble walls, terrazzo floors, decorative ironwork and a balcony. It also hosted live theatre, adding to the building’s place in Beirut’s cultural life.

War interrupted that life. After restoration, the former cinema found a different rhythm as Buddha-Bar. Opening in 2004, it brought dramatic interiors, a monumental Buddha and the lounge sound associated with Claude Challe to Beirut’s nightlife, before closing in October 2012.

In 2009, Le Capitole gave the rooftop a new following. Its refined atmosphere, great music and views across downtown made it a fashionable nightspot, with Siham Asseily among the partners behind it.

Today, inside the former Buddha-Bar, red walls, faded gold lettering and patterned stairs remain. The tables are gone, and the stairs lead into darkness.

Once, people came here wondering what the evening would bring. Now, we wonder what will become of the place.

Thank you to Elie Melhem of Banque Crédit Libanais for giving us access to the former Buddha-Bar.

Kudos to @omars.harb for the extra info and archives.

@elie.lb85

@siham_tueni taken in Riad El Solh by @lancearamouny

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10 hours ago

Before fashion became what it is today, she was making history on the international scene.

The Beirut Narrative with Andrée Acouri, this Sunday at 7 PM on SHFT.

Watch on Cablevision and CV+.

#TheBeirutNarrative #AndreeAcouri #SHFT #Cablevision #CVPlus by @lancearamouny

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a day ago

KAROL SCHAYER: THE COUNTRY HE CHOSE, THE LEBANON HE SHAPED

If there’s one foreign architect who contributed enormously to the golden age of modernism in Lebanon, Karol Schayer has got to be him.

Alongside figures such as Raoul Verney and Jacques Liger-Belair, he helped shape the country’s architectural landscape during the decades of extraordinary creativity that followed independence.

His Lebanese story began in 1946. A Polish architect displaced by the Second World War, Schayer arrived in Beirut with an established career behind him and a new chapter ahead. Lebanon became his home, and he eventually acquired Lebanese citizenship.

Working with Fritz Gotthelf, Bahij Makdisi and Wassek Adib, he helped create an architecture suited to a country changing rapidly. Apartment buildings, villas, hotels and offices brought modernism into everyday life. His work extended beyond Beirut to Saida and Tripoli.

The AUB Alumni Club, Dar al-Sayad in Hazmieh, the Carlton Hotel in Raouché, the building that housed Hamra’s Horseshoe café and the Shell building all belong to that remarkable body of work. These were places where people lived, worked, gathered and made memories.

Hamra held a particularly significant share of his work, including the Makdessi and Jabbour buildings, among others. On one street alone, three of his buildings stand together. That street deserves to bear Karol Schayer’s name, a lasting tribute to the architect who helped give the neighbourhood so much of its character.

His architecture gave practical needs an elegant form. Clean lines, generous balconies and carefully considered openings shaped the façades, while sunshades filtered the strong Mediterranean light. At Dar al-Sayad, shading became the building’s defining architectural feature. Modernity was being adapted to life here.

Schayer died in Rockford, Illinois, on 15 March 1971, aged 70. But his final wish brought him back to Lebanon: he was buried in Beirut’s Polish cemetery.

He had crossed countries to find a new home. In Lebanon, he helped build one for others, then chose it as his own final resting place.

With thanks to Omar Harb for the archival photographs and information. taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @lancearamouny

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2 days ago

PRINTANIA PALACE HOTEL
A Basque Accent in Broummana.

A little of the Basque Country, a reminder of Colmar and Strasbourg, and a story firmly rooted in Lebanon.

With its pitched roofs, dark timber-style patterns against pale façades, arched windows and rows of balconies, Printania Palace has a character you recognise immediately.

Its decorative colombage recalls those European houses, translated here into the scale of a grand mountain hotel.

Commissioned by the late businessman Georges Ashkar and opened in 1964, the hotel’s design is attributed to architect Auguste Babouder. Today, it remains in the Ashkar family, with Pierre Ashkar as its owner.

Among the most luxurious hotels of its time, Printania welcomed international visitors, diplomats, celebrities and Lebanon’s elite.

Le Chalet club and Le Grenier restaurant were part of its appeal, giving guests reasons to gather long after a day by the pool.

Inside, the mountain-house feeling continues. A large stone fireplace anchors the lounge, surrounded by wooden armchairs, patterned upholstery and richly coloured carpets.

Dark ceiling beams and substantial chandeliers give the room warmth, while arched windows connect it to the greenery outside. In the entrance and reception areas, geometric ceiling details and polished stone add a more formal touch.

The gardens, terraces and swimming pool complete the picture of a hotel built around the pleasures of a mountain stay: fresh air, leisurely afternoons and evenings spent together.

In recent years, those outdoor spaces have welcomed restaurants and nightlife venues, including Cinco, adding new chapters to its social life.

Printania Palace remains one of the most recognisable landmarks of Lebanon’s golden hospitality years. A place where architecture and the memory of summer still belong together. taken in Printania Palace Hotel by @lancearamouny

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4 days ago

AN AFTERNOON WITH EMIR SAMIR ABILLAMAA.

I went to see an art collection and an atelier. I left wanting to tell the story of the man behind them.

What was meant to be a simple visit to Emir Samir Abillamaa’s mansion in Dbayeh became an encounter with a larger than life personality whose journey deserves a chapter of its own.

From his beginnings at an architectural firm behind the iconic Caves du Roy in Beirut and Los Angeles to his success as an industrial entrepreneur, his life has taken many directions. Along the way, he and his beloved Claude built a family with their four sons, Youssef, Karim, Raed and Maher.

Built on the grounds of the former Mandaloun Club in Dbayeh, their mansion brings together a remarkable collection of artworks by numerous artists, including painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. Yet what made the visit particularly personal was discovering Samir’s own work.

In his atelier, nature and Lebanon’s heritage houses find their way onto his canvases. Seeing these paintings adds another dimension to a man whose life has been so closely connected to industry: the pleasure he takes in observing, painting and creating.

Outside, the garden is an artwork in itself. Lush planting, sculptures and art pieces accompany you along its paths, with a swimming pool adding to the beauty of the setting. Within these grounds, architect Raed Abillamaa’s striking modernist mansion and Karim’s enchanting Lebanese house give two very different architectural expressions to a shared family world.

There was so much to admire. But it is Samir I will remember most. A remarkable man whose warmth and sincerity made the encounter feel immediately personal. As he shared his journey, I was struck by how genuine he was, and by the enthusiasm with which he spoke about his family, his art and the life he has built.

The art brought me there. The man gave me a reason to return.

Thank you Hania for a wonderful experience!
@haniaaaaaaa by @lancearamouny

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5 days ago

THE RED HOUSE: WHAT A FAÇADE CANNOT KEEP

Behind those red shutters, Beirut gathered.

On Abdel Aziz Street in Hamra, the Rebeiz family house belonged to a Ras Beirut whose history stretched back generations. The Rebeiz were among its most prominent families, their name closely connected to the neighbourhood’s land, social life and political history.

Known as the Red House, it welcomed Abdallah Yafi, Saeb Salam, Sami el Solh, Habib Abi Chahla and Bahij Takieddine, alongside thinkers, artists and visitors from Lebanon’s celebrated cultural years. Even Louis Armstrong visited in the 1960s.

But its story also lived in the everyday details.

The extraordinary interior photographs shared by my friend Paola Rebeiz and the Rebeiz family let us see what stood behind the familiar façade: high ceilings, patterned floor tiles, tall wooden windows and rooms connected by generous doorways beneath arched openings.

There were crystal chandeliers and fringed lamps, embroidered cushions, brass coffee pots, wooden cabinets and family photographs. Outside, red shutters opened onto a balcony, while trees shaded a courtyard fountain. A home furnished and cared for over generations, with its own character in every room.

After family feuds and numerous attempts by activists to stop its demolition, Hamra’s memorable Red House is now just a memory. Its façade remains the last souvenir of a home that stood for more than two hundred years, as generations passed by and paused to admire it.

Behind it, the roof and much of the interior are gone.

And what comes next? Another ugly tower? A residential block with little thought for the street around it? Or simply a parking lot? Whatever the answer, none will replace what has been lost.

Keeping a façade cannot preserve the rooms, the craftsmanship, the garden or the life that gave a house its meaning.

Hamra has lost another part of itself.

How much more must disappear before we protect what remains?

Interior photographs: Paola Rebeiz and the Rebeiz Family taken in Hamra Street, Beirut by @lancearamouny

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7 days ago

What if a city could be read like a story, not through its skyline, but through the ideas that shape it?

Youssef Tohme on seeing Beirut beyond its façades.

The Beirut Narrative | Sunday, 7 PM

Watch it on SHFT. Available on Cablevision and CV+.

#TheBeirutNarrative #YoussefTohme #SHFT #BeirutThroughAnotherLens by @lancearamouny

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8 days ago

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9 days ago

“Being male is a matter of birth, being a man is a matter of age, but being a gentleman is a matter of choice.”

Yet age alone cannot define the man we become. Neither can the money, power or toughness society so often teaches us to admire.

For me, it comes down to integrity, kindness, the promises we keep and the loyalty we show. It also takes courage to reveal the vulnerability we sometimes feel compelled to hide.

Growing older is inevitable. Growing into a gentleman is a daily commitment to those values, measured by how we treat people and how we make them feel.

I’ve earned the silver in my beard, and boy, has it taken me a long time to understand that I can stand my ground without hardening my heart.

Photo credit @pierre_is_rock by @lancearamouny

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11 days ago