Following World War I, France governed the territory that today makes up Lebanon. Although Lebanon gained its independence in 1943, its architecture remained heavily influenced by modernist styles from Europe and the United States.
Among the best-known modernist-style buildings are the Roxy movie theater in central Beirut, built in 1932 to a design by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Ilyas Murr. Farad Trad was a graduate of the Paris-based Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures and designed many Beirut villas, including the 1947 UNESCO palace.
The violence of the 1970s and 1980s destroyed much of the urban fabric of Beirut, with the shell-damaged Murr Tower in Beirut standing as one of the symbols of the conflict. Today much of Beirut's architecture consists of the high-rise concrete towers that house the city's businesses and its 1.25 million residents.
