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| Arabia |
| Kuwait City is latest Arab capital to get an American University |
| 2004-12-12 |
| "It's not everyday that you get to build a campus," says Chadi Chamoun with a wide Cheshire cat grin. A young Lebanese architect who splits his time between Beirut and London (where he's finishing his PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture), Chamoun speaks in a vintage New York accent betraying the fact he spent a good many years growing up in Queens. He came back to Lebanon to work with his father, Rachid Chamoun, who directs the urban planning program at the Lebanese American University (LAU). On a table in front of Chamoun the Younger are drawings for one of his and his father's most unusual projects to date - a full-scale master plan and design scheme for the new American University of Kuwait (AUK) in Kuwait City. AUK opened its doors to a modest class of 500 students this fall. Established in 2003 as a private liberal arts university - the first of its kind in Kuwait - the school rests on the site of an old elementary school. "Incidentally, it's all pink," notes Chamoun. Refurbishing the existing structures may be sufficient for now. But eventually, AUK's campus will cover 40,000 square meters in the heart of Kuwait's bustling Salmiya neighborhood. Chamoun's plans include numerous building rehabilitations and the construction of five entirely new structures to house, among other things, a school of arts and sciences, a school of architecture and engineering, a tower for graduate education, an administrative building and a multi-use student union fused with a library and spliced with a food court, bookstore, running track, recreation rooms for student clubs and offices for visiting scholars. AUK is the latest contender to enter the region's burgeoning ring of American-style institutions of higher learning. It joins the American University of Beirut (founded in 1866), the American University in Cairo (established in 1919), the American University of Sharjah (which opened its doors in 1997) and the American University in Dubai (which held its seventh commencement exercises last spring). Contrary to easy assumptions, none are linked into a satellite system of schools and none save AUS bear any connection to the American University in Washington, DC. |
| Posted by:Fred |