Several of Karam's buildings suffered heavy damage during the
Lebanese Civil War.
Beirut City Center: Among Karam's influential projects was the Beirut City Center. Built in 1966, it was a multi-use complex that included an office building, an egg-shaped cinema and a shopping mall that was at the time the largest in the Middle East. The Beirut City Center was badly damaged during the
Lebanese Civil War. In the 1990s, the complex was demolished with the exception of its iconic cinema. The "egg" (sometimes also called the dome or the soap) has survived and has over the years become a symbol of the prewar avant-garde. It has inspired artists and architects to propose a number of ideas for rehabilitation. Talk of its possible demolition in the past two decades has mobilized students and architects in favor of its preservation. The current owners of the site have affirmed their desire to preserve it and to integrate it into a new project.
Phoenicia Hotel: In the 1960s, Karam won the commission for the second phase of the
Phoenicia Hotel, at the time part of the Intercontinental Hotels chain owned by Pan American Airways. The first phase, a low-rise concrete structure built opposite the Baie de St George and the Mediterranean sea, had been designed by the American architect
Edward Durrell Stone in the 1950s. Karam mimicked Stone’s exterior theme in the new high-rise addition, while putting his own mark on the large expansion of the lobby area and interiors. In the fall of 1975, the
Battle of the Hotels broke out on the Beirut waterfront, pitting militiamen in the
Phoenicia Hotel against their enemies in the nearby
Holiday Inn. Both hotels were burnt and vandalized and remained unused until the end of the war. The Phoenicia was renovated in the 1990s and has regained its place as one of Beirut's most luxurious hotels. ==Life and background==