Victor Tarazi is recorded as a Lebanese student enrolled on the 1962-63 postgraduate course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Tropical Studies, in London. One of his student projects, for a school in Lagos (jointly authored with classmates) was published in the AA Journal of April 1963. Following completion of the course he appears to have returned to Lebanon, where by 1967 he had joined the British architect, Anthony Irving, in forming the Design Supervision Group. One of his most significant early projects (designed with Irving) was the Brutalist American Life Insurance Building, in Beirut (1967-72). By the mid-1970s the Design Supervision Group took full advantage of the construction boom conditions in Saudi Arabia, working for government bodies and the royal family. By 1978, Tarazi had been involved in the design of around 250 buildings in Saudi, the majority being in Riyadh. Amongst these projects were commercial buildings including a bank in Jeddah, for the Riyadh Bank, and a major complex, housing for the Saudi Youth and Welfare Administration, alongside villas for Saudi princes and wealthy businessmen.

 Sources

• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 13th February, 1963. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Journal, April 1963, pp.302-309, 312-313
• Engineering News – Record, Vol. 200, Part 2, (1978) p.21
• Middle East Economic Digest, Vol. 22 (1978), p.32
• The Buffalo Evening News, March 11th, 1971, Section IV, p.40