DATE: March 20, 2008

CONTACT: Hala F. Nassar, (864) 656-2499
hnassar@clemson.edu

CONTACT: Robert Hewitt, (864) 656-6698
hewitt@clemson.edu

WRITER: Ross Norton, (864) 656-4810
rnorton@clemson.edu

Clemson faculty present master plan to Egyptian prime minister

CLEMSON — Two members of Clemson University’s landscape architecture faculty join colleagues in Egypt on Saturday to present the Egyptian prime minister a plan to restore one of the world’s great historic sites.

If Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif approves the plan put together by Clemson and Ain Shams University students and faculty, he could push through the funding required for implementation.

Hala Nassar and Robert Hewitt will join their counterparts from Ain Shams to present the architecture and landscape architecture plans.

The two universities have collaborated since 2006 on a master plan that would restore and rejuvenate two temples and the Avenue of the Sphinxes in the city of Luxor, including a waterfront area on the Nile River.

The ancient temples of Luxor and Karnak are connected by an avenue lined with ram-headed sphinxes. Much of the ancient site has fallen to ruin or been overrun by centuries of encroachment. Much of the two-mile avenue is covered in layers of unplanned and haphazard sprawl.

The idea for the universities to collaborate emerged when Nassar returned to Egypt to visit family and colleagues. She discovered that Ain Shams has a great architecture program, but no landscape architecture tradition, which is one of Clemson’s strength disciplines. The master plan presented to Prime Minister Nazif will include architecture and landscape architecture elements.

Clemson students first visited the site in Luxor in 2007, when they and their Ain Shams counterparts documented current conditions. Their challenge was to find a solution to preserving the ancient area while remaining sensitive to the needs of modern inhabitants.