tonight’s real location

In case anyone in Beirut was planning to drop by tonight, my talk is not at the American University of Science and Technology, as I was led to believe. The real sponsor is as follows:

Beirut Studio 2010 of the School of Architecture of the University of Technology, Sydney.

It’s in an apartment that’s been converted into a studio for this multi-week program, arranged by a local “fixer'” by the name of Mansour. Looks like a great group of faculty and students, and it is certainly the most informal setting to which I have ever been flown in to talk.

A bit of a dark note already, however… Some of the students in this group were working on the Beirut Corniche, and were being helped by several local people. One of them was a kindly man, said to be somewhat autistic, or something of the sort. The students bade farewell to him last night, and when they passed back again 20 minutes later, he was dead on the sidewalk: apparently a homicide. The police and ambulance had not yet arrived, so it must have just happened minutes earlier. No word yet on any motive for the killing.