The roots of the Lebanese American University trace back to the American School for Girls, founded in Beirut in 1823. In 1927, it became known as the American Junior College for Women. The college was converted into a coeducational institution in 1973 before evolving into the present Lebanese American University (LAU). In 1988, LAU decided to expand its services to serve the North of Lebanon and created a new academic hub in Blat, close to the historic city of Byblos.

The campus sits on a highly accidented site that ranges between 200 and 500 meters in altitude, bordered by a rainwater stream to the south and steep hills to the north. The master plan locates the main academic hub to the north west of the site where the topography is moderate, while residential facilities for faculty and students stretch east along the contour lines. Communal and leisure facilities including a recreational football field, a gymnasium and tennis courts are placed at the centre as a natural means to mediate between the communal and the private realms. Car circulation on the other hand is restricted to peripheral roads, where it also serves the residential facilities.

Academic life is conceived around a main pedestrian concourse, along which teaching facilities alternate and interconnect with faculty offices. A typology of four levels was devised in order to take advantage of the existing slopes and to avoid the use of retaining walls. In section, a split level organization is adopted to restrict the use of elevators to disabled access, while elevated gardens at upper levels bridge over the concourse to connect the different buildings and facilitate circulation.