Lucien Cassia attended the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts from 1955 to 1958 and pursued post-graduate studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris until 1960. Lucien Cassia held several faculty positions and served as a regular juror and critic to various universities in Paris and Beirut up until 1970.

Throughout his international career, Cassia received numerous awards for design excellence, including the 1989 Excellence Prize, presented by the late Syrian president Hafez al Assad. Founding member of CASSIA since 1958, his firm completed over 320 projects ranging from leisure and tourism resorts to corporate, government, institutional, medical, commercial, residential, and palatial residences. Recognized for its inventive articulation of programme within the architectural agenda of the designs, CASSIA’s work has been published and is recognized today as one of the very best Middle East based practices.

Serving as Founding Principal and Managing Director of The Cassia Group (CASSIA) from 1958 until 2012, Lucien Cassia oversaw all creative aspects of the studio design process. Based in Paris and Abu Dhabi between 1974-1997, then Paris and Beirut onwards, Lucien Cassia’s airmiles account reflected his unsatiable interest in frontier and developing economies which spearheaded the firm’s growth in MENA, the GCC and North Africa which invariably saw the establishment of local offices for optimal client interface.

Concurrently with CASSIA’s consulting activities, Lucien Cassia was also a seasoned residential developer in London and Paris with a focus on high-end centrally located townhouses including Physics Place, Wellington Square, Ovington Square and from 2005 onwards, the $16m Saifi 308 luxury residential building in the art district of Beirut - Ashrafieh was finally completed in 2018.

Along with Lucien’s consulting interests, he was also a prolific artist and exhibited in numerous painting exhibitions throughout his life.