Omar Take Architectural Consulting - Omar A.Take - Architect ...

MOVING TO LEBANONIn November 1983, I was asked by the President of Lebanon to help in the reconstruction of the Country after 15years of civil unrest and Professor Tange kindly gave me a leave of absence. I was appointed Vice President ofthe Projects Department at the National Council for Reconstruction and Development of Lebanon – CDR - itwas a hard decision to make because during that period I was involved in the design of the Royal Palace for Hislate Majesty King Hussein of Jordan and had the honor of having many working sessions with Her MajestyQueen Noor Al Hussein, who had a degree in Architecture from Princeton University. The Project lately wascancelled due to the deterioration and the sudden loss of His Majesty the King.The CDR was a super Ministry and we were the only Government Institution that has the power to awardconstruction contracts directly without going to tender – in order to save time because of the urgency toreconstruct hundreds of miles of damages roads, hundreds of damages schools, and other development projectsregarding the electric and telephone networks. I was appointed because of my experience in working on largeprojects like the New Federal Capital of Nigeria and the Naples Projects. This was the only time I worked as agovernment official and my office was in the Presidential Palace – The war escalated and we would spend manyhours hiding in a shelter because bombs were falling in the vicinity of the palace.I was able to help reconstruct over 20 schools and give my input on the design ( see picture below) and organizethe projects department – I was given carte blanche to select my team of architects and engineers that wereresponsible for the daily supervision of the projects awarded by the CDR and approve payments to the manycontractors.A friend of mine invited me to open an office in Kuwait, and design a few projects including the refurbishment of aHistoric Building in the heart of London owned by the Crown Prince of Kuwait.