Built in 1966, it was a multi-use complex that included an office building, an egg-shaped cinema and a shopping mall that was at the time the largest in the Middle East.
The first phase, a low-rise concrete structure built opposite the Baie de St George and the Mediterranean sea, had been designed by the American architect Edward Durrell Stone in the 1950s.
Karam mimicked Stone’s exterior theme in the new high-rise addition, while putting his own mark on the large expansion of the lobby area and interiors.
His family were Christian Maronites from the historic village of Beiteddine in the Chouf mountains southeast of Beirut.
He attended primary and secondary school in Beirut at the Jesuit Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour.
On 9 April 2016, the Lebanese daily L'Orient-Le Jour published an article by his sons marking the 40th anniversary of his death.