In 1928 he designed[13] Ford Motor Company's Middle East Headquarters, later to be named "The Corm Building and Gardens", with no formal architectural training. The building was erected in 1929 in Beirut,[2] later becoming the Corm family home.[13] It was the Middle East's first skyscraper and highest standing structure in Lebanon until 1967. Reflecting Charles Corm's ecologist instincts[citation needed], long before that term had come to carry its modern social and ideological "activist" connotations, the building's 14,000 m2 gardens (the largest private gardens in Beirut) contain a variety of artistic and archaeological relics as well as exotic trees and rare plants.[3]