Prequalifiers have until 27 March to submit technical and commercial proposals for the contract to build the Suliman S Olayan School of Business, part of the estimated $85 million building programme on the American University of Beirut (AUB) campus.

Prequalifiers include Arabian Construction Company, Karagulla Engineering & Contracting Company, Alfred & Jacques Matta, Michel Abi Nader Enterprises and Entreprises AR Hourie, all local. The three-storey building will also have two basements. Work is scheduled to start in June and be completed by the end of December. The design consultant is a local company identified as Builders Design Consultants. Construction management is being handled by Cyprus-registered DG Jones & Partners. The architect is Boston-based Machado & Silvetti Associates.

At least eight other buildings are planned as part of the programme. Karagulla was awarded in September the construction contract for the 17,000-square-metre Charles Hostler Student Centre at AUB. The architect is Minneapolis-based Vincent James Associates Architects (MEED 2:9:05).

Infrastructure work on the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs is scheduled to start in June 2007. The architect is London-based Zaha Hadid Architects. Work is due to be completed by the end of September 2008.

Architects and consultants have been appointed for six other buildings. The US' Perkins & Wills is the architect appointed to develop the fourth floor of the Abu Haider Neuroscience Centre and the eighth floor of the Naef K Basile Cancer Centre. The two floors cover a total area of 5,620 square metres. The consultant is Beirut-based Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners).

The local TRUST Contracting & Trading is the consultant for the CCC Scientific Research building, which will cover a 5,016-square-metre area. The architect is the local Bawader Architects, which is also the architect for the new 3,000-square-metre School of Nursing. The local Samir Khairallah & Partners is the consultant for Building 23, which is planned to be built over a 5,109-square-metre-area. The local ERGA Group is the consultant for the Emergency Rehabilitation Unit building, which is planned to cover a 2,322-square-metre area, and Building 56, which covers a 5,016-square-metre area.