Platinum Tower is a highrise residential building in Beirut in Lebanon. It occupies a large plot on the Zaitunay Bay Marina, at Saint George Bay in the Beirut Central District. The house is illuminated over night at the edges, and on top, additionally with horizontal light lines at every ninth floor.
The Platinum Tower consists of two single buildings, the smaller one at the sea side, the lower one overlooking the Beirut Central District. This building was a ‘Hourie Development’ project, designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura & Nabil Gholam Architecture & Planning. It was completed in 2008, one year behind its expected completion date. It held the status of the tallest building in Lebanon at 153 meters, until 2014 when it was eclipsed by the 180-meter-high Sky Gate tower in the Achrafieh district of Beirut. Below the tower, five levels are reserved a car park. A pedestrian bridge connecting the building to the Zaitunay Bay is planned for future construction.
Zaitunay Bay is a quayside commercial and tourist strip around the West Marina, composed of 17 restaurants and cafes, 5 retail stores, 2 activity centers, a yachtclub and a boardwalk. The quayside restaurant strip is a prime destination in the city center with restaurants stretching along the Beirut Marina, from the site’s western limit to the Yacht Club building on the east. The strip houses several international restaurant and cafe chains such as Paul, Moti Mahal Delux, Häagen-Dazs, and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, aside to many local outlets serving seafood, and Lebanese or French Cuisine. The Yacht Club accommodates three basement levels; exclusive commercial shops at marina level; a yacht club and 53 state-of-the-art furnished and serviced apartments on the upper three levels, with one, two and three bedrooms. Two activity centers provide all sea-related services and water sports activities such as rentals for boats, yachts and jet-skis, fishing and scuba diving trips, boat rides, and water-skiing and para-sailing lessons. “Zaitunay” literally meaning olives.
