On a whim, Terry Bitar diverted off the main highway that leads directly to the port of Beirut, Lebanon.
The date was Aug. 4, 2020—roughly two weeks before she was set to begin online coursework as an M.B.A. student at the George Washington University.
As Bitar was driving through the heart of the city for a last-minute meeting with her team at the nonprofit she ran, Charity Donation Foundation, she noted there was time to spare and veered off course for a quick hair appointment a few blocks away from the water.
Five minutes after her arrival, a blast of tragic proportions rattled the walls around her. Down by the port, roughly 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated after a fire broke out at a nearby warehouse. A total of 218 people died. Bitar firmly believes she would have too had she not opted to get her hair done.
“If I’d been on that highway, I would have been dead,” Bitar said. “I still can’t believe how I decided to turn and why I did it.”
That decision marked the turning point of her life. Viewing survival as a new lease, Bitar acted on a longtime vision: to move to the United States and build an enterprise that merged her passion for architecture, business acumen and lifelong drive to help others. Less than a month after the explosion, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she continued to lead her foundation while taking classes at GW.
In the five years since, Bitar has transformed her bout with tragedy into triumph by founding Bitarchitects, an award-winning architecture, engineering and construction firm showing how multidisciplinary collaboration can shape modern cities.
Bitar paused her M.B.A. pursuit during the founding process but, in true architect form, she wasn’t about to let a project stay in scaffolding. Today, she’s back at GW and set to graduate in May—completing not only a degree, but a full-circle journey.
“When I’m in something, I like to finish it,” Bitar said. “GW is part of my story, and what pushed me to come back is wanting to really have this chapter complete.”
Bitar’s successes are no surprise to Nazlin Bhimji, who served as a Mentor-in-Residence through GW’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship during Bitar’s initial stint at the university. Bhimji recalls being impressed by Bitar’s discipline and drive—qualities that, in hindsight, foreshadowed the success to come.
“Her ambition was front and center,” Bhimji said. “That’s who she is, and that hasn’t changed.”
It wasn’t long before that drive translated into action. Founded in 2021, Bitarchitects began as a one-woman operation and quickly expanded into a full-service architecture, engineering, permitting and construction firm operating across five states and D.C. Today, Bitar leads a growing team of architects, engineers and specialists who bring together design intelligence, sustainability and technology.