Preserving the heart of Mar Mikhael

In just a few years, the area of Mar Mikhael has gone from being a small industrial neighborhood to Beirut’s nightlife destination par excellence. Today, Vogue magazine’s recommendations for “Four Perfect Days in Beirut” are mostly centered around Mar Mikhael and its vicinity. Yet, it is important to contextualize and study such changes without taking them at face value. In partnership with GAIA-Heritage, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut hosted a workshop for graduate students from Sciences-Po Paris and the Masters in Urban Planning and Policy program at American University of Beirut to study the creative industries and the changes that occurred in the neighborhood over the past seven years. The collaboration was held under the Social Justice and the City Project at the institute, and the workshop findings were synthesized into two publications: Linking Economic Change with Social Justice