For the perfect weekend away in the jet-setting 60’s nothing could have been more perfect than spending the weekend by the pool at the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut. The pool was said to have the best displays of bikinis in the Mediterranean in the 1960’s.
Although not the same style of today’s modern hotels and resorts, the Phoenicia was the place to be and to be seen. Designed by American architect Edward Durell Stone with Middle Eastern Influences especially on the façade of the hotel, this was a 600 room oasis for the rich and famous.
I love the pure architectural symmetry of the modernist architecture which is reflected in the colonnade which ran along the pool deck. The marble used is pure white and immediately looks cool and inviting. This was a modernist masterpiece! Unfortunately due to the civil war and the subsequent refurbishment of the hotel this area is virtually unrecognisable.
I am going to sit back, and remember the jet-set with a gin this weekend, and hopefully run into an Onassis or two.
