Winter 2009 Vol. VII, No. 2

Letters to the Editors

Fall 2008, Vol. VII, No. 1

The Art of AUB
Kindly advise when each issue of MainGate goes on-line. And how can I view the AUB permanent art collection? It’s brilliant!

George Zamel (BBA ’79)
Abu Dhabi

The on-line edition of the magazine is posted as soon as we go to press- you can find it at www.aub.edu.lb/~webmgate. For more information on the art collection, contact: museumcom@aub.edu.lb —Ed.

Congratulations for the interesting and informative issue of MainGate, which gave a wide overview of the Lebanese artistic movement through the experience of Helen Khal (Beirut: A World of Art). I wish to draw your attention, however, to one mistake: a piece attributed to Hussein Madi, on page 25, is actually a 1950 painting by artist Saloua Raouda Choucair.

Omar Gharzeddine (BA’83)
New York, NY

Summer 2008, Vol. VI, No. 4

A Summer Mezze
Sincere congratulations for the delicious edition of "A Summer Mezze"! We receive four issues of every MainGate, which we read rapidly—but this is the first time that the entire family has read the different articles on food and eating with so much interest. We hope that you will continue with “practical” subjects like this one with the same beautiful presentation.

Max Zaccar, Anne Marie Zaydan (BBA ’78), Diane Zaccar (BBA ’03),
Coralie Zaccar (BBA ’07)
Jounieh, Lebanon

1- If you want only one copy, email us at maingate@aub.edu.lb and 2-Thanks! —Ed.

Attn. FEA:
During a visit to Switzerland, I ended up in an extraordinary exhibition in downtown Zurich—"a glimpse of the works of the SHAGAL| iodaa." The work of this interdisciplinary design, architecture, and arts office was really out of the ordinary, replete with artful, sustainable, green designs that were completely carbon neutral. Their designs and products remind me of Victor Papanek's phrase: "Design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself)." The firm advocates for change—globally, locally, economically, educationally, socially, technologically, and all this through design research interventions. I believe that faculty and students in engineering, architecture, and design and urban landscape and planning—as well as Lebanon’s design community—would appreciate their work in this current craze for carbon-neutral, zero-energy design and social sustainability.

Mark White
Atlanta, GA