Named after Slim’s late wife Soumaya Domit Gemayel, the museum houses an art collection of over 60,000 works on display for public appreciation. The building – a rotated rhomboid – is supported by 28 curved steel columns of different diameters and shapes and clad in a honeycomb of hexagonal mirrored-steel tiles. Completed in 2011, the structure spans 16,000 square metres and consists of six gallery floors.
The building’s skeleton consists of 28 curved steel columns, of varying widths around the perimeter and attached to a concrete podium. Adding support is a seven-ring structural system which creates cantilevers on multiple sides. The seven horizontal beams, one on each floor level, work to bind the columns together and adds stability to the flowing six-level promenade of exhibition, presentation and communal gathering spaces.