In 1963, Oscar Niemeyer was commissioned by the Lebanese government to design a complex for an international fair. Considered the face of Lebanese modernism, it came to symbolize the prosperous years before the period of civil war that was to follow. The fairground was abandoned mid-construction at the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. After falling into ruin, the fairground was included on the 2006 World Monuments Watch in order to call attention to the years of neglect and deferred maintenance it had experienced.
I traveled to Tripoli while photographing several projects in and around Beirut.
