29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001
Issue No.562
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001 Issue No.562 |
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Death of a building
It may be beautiful, but it's not 'unique.' Dena Rashed tracks the fate of one downtown building well past its prime
Mohamed, a curious little boy hovering nearby, was incredulous when he found us snapping pictures of one of downtown Cairo's many decrepit old buildings. "What are you taking pictures of?" he asked.
The object of our affection was a building that stood out for its grand doorways and elaborate wrought iron work. Long past its heyday, the building was evidently once a grand one, and small features still stand testament to this fact. The rest, sadly, is in tatters.
No one seems to know much about the building, located on Zaki street. The material dug up by Al-Ahram Weekly through the relevant government authorities indicates no more than that it was once a three-story building, built in the early-20th century by a foreigner. In the 1980s, the building was sold to Maged El- Gabrawi, an Egyptian, who still owns it today. The upper two floors are nothing but a skeleton, but 14 shops continue to operate on the ground floor, despite the rubble above them.
"The building is beautiful and we did not want to demolish it, but we feared it would fall down," El-Gabrawi told the Weekly. "I commissioned two special committees of professors at the Faculty of Engineering to assess the condition of the building. Both reports have come up with the assessment that the building is in very poor condition and should be torn down -- and, most importantly, that it has no distinctive architecture."
The building's renters, however, disagree. They have built what they feel is a credible legal case against El-Gabrawi, citing the fact that the government's District Committee investigated the building and recommended that the two upper floors be demolished and the rest restored. "Just because a building is old is no reason to demolish it," argues Osman Hany, who owns a pharmacy on the ground floor. Hany, who is spearheading the case against El- Gabrawi added significantly: "On the contrary, the walls of the building are so strong they went through two earthquakes without damage."
Hassan Ibrahim, the head of the buildings sector in Abdin district, is unconvinced by commissions and reports. "Each side can come up with any special report he wants. These reports, however, can be biased to the side that commissioned it. Because of this, they are not binding in a court of law."
Clockwise from left: grand façade; gutting out the back; elaborate details; CN: the initials of the owner or perhaps the architect?; wrought iron balconies defy time
photos: Sherif Sonbol
Ibrahim Soliman, who rents a shop in the building, inherited the place from his father. Not only is he unwilling to give up his family's legacy, but he notes that it is difficult to start from scratch in another area. "My clients already know my shop, since we have been here since the 1950s," he said.
Shop owners complain that if they are going to be forced to leave, El-Gabrawi should offer them fair compensation for their property. "The money the owner offered us is trivial compared to the real value of the area on which the building is constructed," argues Sherif Nicola, another tenant. And although the exact price of the 800-square-metre property is unknown in today's precarious market, it would obviously be worth many millions of pounds.
In the meantime, from behind the impressive facade, the building is clearly being gutted. El- Gabrawi says he is removing harmful rubble, but residents say the building is slowly being demolished under their noses. "Workers come at night and demolish parts of the building, so we have put up guard 24 hours a day to try and prevent any further damage," said Hany.
Abdin district's Ibrahim claims that the authorities have taken "all necessary measures regarding this building," noting that the district has filed a report against the owner and the engineer who should be overseeing the restoration of the building. But at the end of the day, Ibrahim is not really worried about the matter. "It is true the building has some beautiful features, but that isn't enough to prompt us to preserve it," he said. "To put a building on the heritage list, it must represent a distinct form of architecture as a whole. Otherwise, it is a building like any other downtown."
One need only look closely at the details of this neglected structure to see that it is not a building "like any other." A relic of a time long past, it is one of the few remaining examples of Cairo's rich architectural history.
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