March 2001 Rasem Badran, co-principal of the architectural firm Dar al-Omran, delivered a public lecture entitled Reflections on the Novelty of the Place at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also delivered two public lectures in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia that concentrated on Dar al-Omran's entry for the Jabal Omar competition in Saudi Arabia. The competition calls for the comprehensive development of a residential and commercial district near Mecca.