Heydar Ghiai

Heydar Ghiai studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris and University of Tehran. Employment is recorded with University of Tehran. Works named in the authority record are Tehranpars Cinema, Radio City Cinema, Senate Palace (Tehran), Parsian Esteghlal International Hotel, Soroush Cinema and Mashhad Railway Station.

• Name — Heydar Ghiai • Birth Name — Heydar-Gholi Khan Ghiaï-Chamlou • Born — 23 October 1922 • Birthplace — Tehran, Qajar Iran • Died — 6 September 1985 • Place of death — Cap d'Antibes, France • Occupation — Architect, university professor • Significant Buildings — Senate House of Iran Royal Tehran Hilton Hotel Fondation Avicenne

Ghiai's first government commission was the Senate building in Tehran, designed with Mohsen Foroughi between 1954 and 1959. The building has a freestanding marble-grid façade framed by two 25-metre bronze columns created by French architect and sculptor André Bloc. The columns take the form of enlarged interlocking chains. Contemporary architectural literature also documented the Senate building as one of Ghiai's principal works. His other public commissions included the Ministry of Water and Electricity building, completed in 1959; the Palace of Fine Arts, completed in 1960; Mashhad Hospital, completed in 1963; and the Ministry of Agriculture building, completed in 1970. He was also responsible for hospital projects in Lavizan, Ahvaz and Isfahan that remained under construction at the time of the Iranian Revolution. In 1968, Ghiai was appointed architect to the imperial court. He worked on plans for a palace complex at Farahabad, although the proposal did not receive the approval of Iran's Plan and Budget Organization.

Outside Iran, Ghiai and Foroughi collaborated with André Bloc and French architect Claude Parent on the Maison de l'Iran, a student residence at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. Ghiai and Foroughi had prepared an earlier proposal for the building, but after it was not approved by the Paris authorities, Bloc introduced the architects to Parent. The collaborative design was completed in 1969. • Illustration — The Fondation Avicenne, formerly the Maison de l'Iran, seen from Boulevard Romain-Rolland The residence was created to provide approximately 100 rooms for Iranian students. Its residential floors are suspended from a macrostructure formed by three welded-steel frames about 38 metres high. A large external steel staircase was designed as a separate sculptural feature. The building was transferred to the Cité internationale and renamed the Fondation Avicenne in 1972. It was placed on France's list of historic monuments in 2008.

Ghiai later lived in France. He died on 6 September 1985 in Cap d'Antibes, aged 62.

The following selection is based primarily on the documented project list published by Encyclopaedia Iranica. • Senate House of Iran, Tehran, 1954–1959, with Mohsen Foroughi • Ministry of Water and Electricity building, Tehran, 1959 • Palace of Fine Arts, Tehran, 1960 • Mashhad Hospital, 1963 • Maison de l'Iran, Paris, completed 1969, with Mohsen Foroughi, Claude Parent and André Bloc • Ministry of Agriculture building, Tehran, 1970 • German Embassy, Tehran • Royal Tehran Hilton Hotel • Moulin Rouge cinema • Cinema Radio City • Tehran Pars Casino and drive-in theatre

• Illustration — Royal Hilton Hotel, Tehran • Illustration — Senate House, Tehran • Illustration — Ghiai Mansion, Tehran • Illustration — Tehran Pars drive-in theatre • Illustration — Model of Lavizan Military Hospital • Illustration — Model of Casino Tehran Pars • Illustration — Model of Mashhad University Hospital • Illustration — Mashhad railway station • Illustration — Cinema Radio City, Tehran • Illustration — Interior of Cinema Radio City • Illustration — Model for the Farahabad palace project • Illustration — Tabriz railway station • Illustration — Villa Nautica, Tehran • Illustration — Swan Lake Villa, Tehran • Illustration — Villa Oceania, Tehran