Image: 1982 MIT class reunion. Omar Take is standing 2nd from the right. The late Professor Horacio Caminos and Dr. Reinhard Goethert are at the center.
Omar Ahmad Take M.ArchAS ‘74 wrote an article for the MIT Arab Alumni Association on his life, his time at MIT and beyond. He has graciously allowed us to repost his story here.
BEGINNINGS
I was born in Mexico City and related to the hustle and bustle of those streets as my home and persona until the mid 1960s when my Lebanese parents decided to return to their home country. It was the first decision I can clearly point to that would totally change the way my future would unfold in front of me.
When arriving in Lebanon as teenager, Spanish was my first language but thankfully I spoke a little English which helped me communicate with my newly discovered and extensive family. I had to learn quickly. Within 6 months I was able to speak Arabic comfortably, and by the end of the next year I took part in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. My first English high school teacher was Dr David Bryer who later became President of Oxfam.
After graduating from high school, I was accepted at the American University of Beirut (AUB) where I intended to study Chemical Engineering. My mother was an interior designer and one of my elder brothers an architect, but despite having these professions in the family I did not think I had the aptitude or confidence to study architecture though I was naturally drawn to it. I would often visit the architecture school at AUB to take in the creative atmosphere and enjoy having informal discussions with some of the students.
Finally, with my family’s full support, I made my own important life decision. I applied to study architecture and was accepted into a class of 13 new students. From the very beginning I had a huge thirst for learning and enjoyed every moment; from draftsmanship to engineering, use of materials and art history. At the center of our faculty was our Dean of Engineering and Architecture, the late Raymond Ghosn - an MIT graduate and one of the most respected architects in the Middle East.
THE PATH TO CAMBRIDGE
I graduated in 1972 as one of only two students who had completed their studies over an accelerated 5 years, and only one to be awarded their Honors of Architecture with a distinction. I was well on my way and knew that I had to keep aiming high to satisfy my love of learning and architecture. I decided to apply to the best universities in the world, being Harvard, Penn and MIT. With my education hopes and ambitions focused on the United States, I was awarded the Fulbright-Hays Grant and relished the day I sent international telegrams - now an outdated mode of communication - to all three universities informing them of this news in the hopes of strengthening my applications.
I was accepted to all three. It was time to make another life decision on which road to take and I followed the path of Dean Ghosn, and MIT alumni, who I deeply admired, respected and was now a dear friend and mentor. I was excited and thrilled to follow in his footsteps while making my own path.
Word spread of my achievement and I was decorated by the President of Lebanon, Suleman Frangieh, who I remember as a wonderful man, patriotic, humble and kind. When he saw my MIT acceptance letter, he teared up and told me: “Son, if ever you feel the need of your country, send me a personal letter and I will be there to assist you!” This was a wonderful way to leave Lebanon, for now, after having such wonderful encouragement, mentors and champions.
At MIT I studied Urban Settlement Design in Developing Countries under Horacio Caminos - a great Argentinian architect who also became a mentor. There were only 8 students in the program, all from different countries including Mexico, Kenya, Afghanistan, Turkey, Uganda, Thailand and Lebanon. The first year we worked on the design of an 4,000 site and service Urban Development in Nairobi, Kenya for the World Bank. One of my classmates Jose Luis Cortez later became President of the International Union of Architects.
I was also fortunate to learn from the late Prof. Eduardo Catalano who designed, among others, the Student Centre and the Dewey Library, MIT Sloan School of Management. I have little doubt that Prof. Caminos high recommendation influenced the renewal of my Fulbright-Hays grant, and then my MIT President’s scholarship.
In 1973 after completing my first year, I returned to Lebanon over the summer break and proposed to President Frangieh to design a model for low-cost housing. The Lebanese Ministry of Housing was in its infancy, but the idea was well received and was issued with a Presidential Decree. I was given a check of $6,000 to cover the cost of the publication, model and shipping costs associated with the project. Back at MIT, I donated the funding I had received to our Program, and moved into Professor Camino’s office for the entire semester to design the housing project and build the model together with his assistant, Dr. Reinhard Goethert, who still teaches at MIT today and remains one of my closest friends.
This photo was taken during my presentation of the “Mkalles Housing Project” to the Minister of Housing and his staff at the Lebanese Order of Architects and Engineers. Sitting on the left was Dear Raymond Ghosn, an MIT Graduate who was very supportive of our project. The model was made at MIT and shipped by air to Lebanon.
I graduated from MIT in 1974 with a 4.9 average and was now ready to see what would happen next.
Back in Beirut I worked at the Office of Raymond Ghosn and was a lecturer in Housing to the Master Class of Architecture at AUB.
FIRST MEETING WITH PROFESSOR KENZO TANGE
My Mother was now the interior designer to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia’s Family. The King had plans to build a new palace in Jeddah and had asked Professor Kenzo Tange to design it with my mother onboard as the interior designer. This is how I first met one of the pioneers of modern architecture that I had studied and admired so much. Professor Tange had just opened an office in Paris and offered me a position that I gladly accepted three years after graduating from MIT, I had joined one of the leading architectural offices in the world.
My first trip to Tokyo was very exciting, discovering an amazing city, with an ancient civilization and filled with wonderful architecture. We were around 100 architects working as teams on many different projects from Bank headquarters in Singapore, hotels in Japan and many other projects across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. My first assignment was as the interior architect for the Akasaka Prince Hotel in Tokyo with 1,000 rooms. This was followed by the Qatar Ministry of Finance and a university in Oran, Algeria.
In 1980, we were one of three firms that were selected among 900 to compete for the design of the central area of Abuja, the new Federal Capital of Nigeria. We were given one month to prepare for this large and historic project. Our pitch team was to be our most senior urban planner and myself, the youngest architect in our office. We presented our design to the jury of 15 chiefs and architects, including Mr. Manmohan Nath Sharmal, the Indian architect and heritage activist who worked with Le Corbusier in designing Chandigarh.
We were awarded the project and for the next two years I was liaison between Tokyo, Paris, Rome and Lagos and multiple consultants for the infrastructure and traffic design. In 1982, I returned to MIT to give a presentation on the Abuja project at the invitation of the Agha-Khan program for Islamic Architecture, with Charles Correa among the audience. Today, Abuja is the largest City in Nigeria with a population reaching 800,000 inhabitants.
In 1983 I became the project manager of the presidential palace in Damascus, Jordan, where my mother had been appointed as interior designer. This was followed by the design of the palace of the late King Hussein in Amman. His wife, Queen Noor Al Hussein, is a Princeton University architecture graduate and so we would meet on a monthly basis to discuss in detail the design and progress for her new home. Our office also designed the University of Science and Technology in Yarmouk, Jordan which King Hussein was very supportive of and had said that it was the best investment for his country’s future generations. My experience in Jordan was one of the most amazing and rewarding of my life. Not only the projects, but I was also humbled to witness firsthand the deep bond and partnership between His Majesty King Hussein and Queen Noor. It was a privilege to work for them, to build their home and over time to consider Queen Noor a friend.
After my MIT graduation ceremony, I remember President Jerome Wiesner telling me that some of the best MIT students were graduates of the American University of Beirut, that “MIT teaches you where to find the necessary information to resolve the problems you will face in your profession and become a leader in your field”. This made me very proud whilst knowing that it was time to return to Lebanon to see what problems I could help solve.
In 1985 I was asked by the President of Lebanon to assist in the reconstruction of the country due to the many years of civil war and was appointed Vice President of the Council of Development and Reconstruction. The Council had unlimited powers to assign projects without tender because of the urgency to rehabilitate roads, schools and government buildings. I knew the country would need talent to rehabilitate in the long term, so I also returned to teach an architecture course at the American University of Beirut.
However, the civil war made daily life very dangerous. I had to cross the red line under bullets every day on my way to the University to teach my lectures. When at work, daily bombardments meant that we would have to regularly take cover in the basement of the Presidential Palace. I soon became aware that when war becomes the norm in your day to day, you lose your fear, you are not scared and you reconnect with your faith. I took calculated risks to walk in the streets to my work and my students but also to reinforce my faith and belief that God Almighty loves and protects. However, in 1986 the situation escalated further, my mother passed away and I was forced to leave this vibrant and promising country, along with the family home my Lebanese ancestors had held for over 800 years.
I decided to move to Kuwait. Two of my Japanese colleagues from Tange’s office came over to support me before creating the prestigious architectural firm, Architect 5. My partner bought a heritage building in London across from Kensington Palace. The building had been burnt down but the solid brick facades had prevailed. With the approval of English Heritage, the Victorian and Edwardian Societies, and many, many others, I was able to design a 60-suite luxury hotel behind the ancient walls and became very familiar with the “rights of light”. I am proud that it is still one of the leading hotels in London, though in my career it was an administrative experience that I feel I do not need to repeat.
In 1989, Professor Tange asked me to return to his Paris office as Vice President since we had many projects in Europe and the Middle East. Back in the fold, I know I was very fortunate to have learnt from the wonderful Professor. Tange whose stable also includes Kisho Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki, F. Maki, T. Furuichi, to name but a few. It has been a privilege to have come from the same grounds as these wonderful architectural minds and creators of timeless habitable sculptures for the ages. The highlight of my contribution whilst working for Professor Tange was when I led the design and supervision of the Asian Art Museum in Nice, France. The Museum’s collection was a donation of 300 works by the great Painter and Sculptor, Pierre Yves Trémois, as well as his own personal collection of ancient Asian Art. The structure of the building was designed by Peter Rice who was a great British structural engineer. The whole building was constructed entirely from white Carrara marble with a spiral stair and solid marble steps. This was by far my favorite creative process of my career; how can an architect not be in awe of selecting marble slabs in Carrara like Michelangelo did centuries ago, from the very same quarry?
After a decade in Paris, I moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2001 to participate in the research and development of an advanced system of construction that consists in manufacturing custom-made concrete/steel insulated panels. The project had brought together my former AUB professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Georges Abi Rached, who was also a consultant to Tange’s office, and his children who were all Stanford graduates. They had developed a computerized robotics system to produce structural panels of sustainable and recyclable materials that allowed architectural designs to be adapted vs. being limited to prefabricated standard elements. Structures made of concrete and steel withstand natural forces, such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes, and have longer lifespans compared to wood. However, affordability should not be a barrier for people to consider concrete and this is only possible by having robotic technology efficiencies and concrete pouring/finishing equipment. After 20 years of research and development, I hope to be showcasing their new factory and facility in the near future. Today, the problem I am wanting to help solve is based on my conviction that our profession must be able to manufacture homes at high volume, low cost and high quality. Supplying homes for all that are structurally robust and sustainable for our planet.
So, in closing. MIT was a wonderful door that opened for me into a profession that I have felt at home in from the start. A global community that has always encouraged me and other fellow students to strive and never stop learning across the generations. It has been an honor to be a member of MIT Educational Council and a humbling experience to annually interview the brilliant high school graduates from British Columbia. This is just one way to express my gratitude to this Institution, whilst keeping our eyes on building the future and its new, ever expanding global horizons.