Welcome. As the title of this blog suggests, I am Mona. I am a multi-disciplinary strategist with a passion for digital strategy and experience design. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more about me.
For all lovers of urban planning, urban development, architecture, heritage architecture and the like, this video report from Monocle highlights why Beirut development has become a threat to the city’s historic streets and neighbourhoods. A very interesting account of the rapid shift in Lebanon’s urban infrastructure.
From Monocle.
Found this gem of an interview from Monocle on urban planning and politics in Lebanon. Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé interviews Lady Yvonne Cochrane of Sursock, Ashrafieh
“Beirut’s Christian quarter of Ashrafieh has weathered civil war, terrorist assassinations and the recent Hezbollah-Israeli conflict. But today the hill-top neighbourhood is once again under threat, this time from developers who are destroying the old palaces to build high-rises for the country’s internationally mobile elite. As Lebanon faces yet another uncertain summer, Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé pays a visit to Lady Yvonne Cochrane, doyenne of the Christian East and owner of one of the most alluring palaces in the eastern Mediterranean, to talk urban planning, architecture and the future of her country.”
Tyler Brûlé of Moncole discusses putting down roots in Beirut.
Excellent opinion article from Financial Times columnist and editor-in-chief of Monocle, Tyler Brûlé
After reading a substantive number of Monocle articles on the hospitality industry, with specifics to top quality ranked hotels around the world, I am more convinced now that the W Hotel on Lexington Avenue, New York has diminished in service. As the W Hotel is part of a chain, I’m feeling inclined to pass judgment on the lot as well. I will not, however. I’ll give the W chain of hotels the benefit of the doubt and assume that the sub-standard experience at the W Hotel on Lexington is exclusive.
In a previous article on hotel service I read in Monocle, the title read “Room for improvement”. The nuance of the title should be applied to the W Hotel simply because the once venerable establishment needs to kick itself in the butt and realize that it cannot ride on the coat tails of its once well received “luxury” brand. At the moment its brand promise is far removed from its delivery. Here are a few suggestions on improving the hotel experience:
1) Improve the internet connection. The internet speed feels very much like a dial up connection in Lebanon. Its awful for businesspeople.
2) Improve the sleep experience. The bed pillows leave my neck aching the next day. They are hollow and cheap.
3) Improve the telephone reception. Every time I call Tina from Toronto, or vice versa, the telephone connection yields a continuous crackling sound. I am reminded of the telephone reception in Beirut circa the civil war when my Mom in Cyprus would try and get a hold of her family. Come on W, this is table stakes stuff!
4) Improve the lacklustre factor. The W hotel feels more like an evening lounge. Everything from the lobby to the hotel corridors is so sparsely lit with dark furniture. I feel like I need to be in an evening gown just to fit with the ambiance. This is just personal taste, however. I also feel that this look and feel has been around since their inception. It all just feels so old and tacky.
5) Improve the bellhop presence. Where are the bellhops? They are scarce.
