Architecture Alum Views Recent Events in Libya First Hand

Few Americans have viewed Libya as Tony Elliott first saw it.

Elliott, a 1976 graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s

nationally top-ranked

School of Architecture and Interior Design, part of UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), first arrived in Bengazi, Libya, in September 2010 as project manager on the effort to complete a five-star, luxury-resort hotel.

He intended to complete this first hotel project and then complete a second one like it in the capital city of Tripoli.

At the time, it was a plan that made a lot of sense.

Explains Elliott, “The weather along Libya’s long coastline is perfect. It reminds me of San Diego. There is a constant breeze off the ocean. The water is a deep blue. The coast is largely undeveloped and could be a prime resort and vacation area. The people are great and the food just as great.”

That was the idea until February 2011 when protests and resistance to the country’s government broke out. Since the government controls the infrastructure, Internet and cell phone service were suddenly unavailable, and Elliott could only text to his family in the United States as he remained in the apartment where he lived – able to hear machine-gun fire around his apartment building, seeing fires burning as well as jet-black smoke rising into the air when a local police station was set afire and ransacked.

“It was quite a surprise. Of course, the world was watching events in Egypt during the previous month, but even my 70-year-old landlord said that similar events would not happen in Libya. While many Libyans don’t like the government, education and health care are free. Gasoline costs 50 cents a gallon. My landlord was convinced that people would focus on these benefits rather than risk the status quo,” says Elliott, a resident of Fishers, Ind.

When protests and unrest broke out in Bengazi, Elliott at first flew to Tripoli, expecting that the city would be peaceful. It was not, and from there, he was able to catch a flight to the Mediterranean island of Malta. On the same day he arrived there, two Libyan fighter pilots landed their jets in order to defect.

It’s ironic, adds Elliott, that when he first attended UC in the early 1970s, “I was very conscious of keeping my grades up in order to stay out of Vietnam. I never suspected that 40 years later, I’d find myself in a war zone.”

But even so, Elliott says he would go back to complete the work he began if possible. Partly because he is now out of work due to the unrest (as are the general contractor on the project as well as the entire hotel project labor force) but more so because of the people he met.

“I was supervising 700 people on the job site and was the only American there, but I never felt anything but welcomed. The people were great, very friendly and would do anything asked of them. I’m still keeping in touch with friends I made there via Facebook and am very relieved that everyone I met is all right despite events,” he states.

He’s also grateful for all the friends he’s heard from since his return to the U.S. in March: “I’ve heard from friends and family from all over the country and even the world since I’ve been back. I am more grateful for my family and friends.”

• See more about Elliott’s time in Libya via his blog.
  
• See the rankings earned by UC’s School of Architecture and Interior Design.
• Apply to UC’s undergraduate or graduate architecture programs.