He proposed in his 1939 plan to destroy the Serail to open up the square the waterfront through a series of landscaped terraces. The destruction of the Petit Serail did not take place until 1950, after Lebanon gained its independence. Nevertheless, the planned clearing of the square was aborted and the Regent Hotel and the Rivoli building were constructed at the site of the Serail in 1953.[1] Solidere destroyed the Rivoli and Regent Hotel buildings in the 1990s,[7] and consequent excavations revealed the foundations of the Petit Serail which will be preserved inside the planned underground Beirut City History Museum.[10][11]