The Berlaymont building is an important governmental building in Brussels, Belgium. It houses the European Commission headquarters. The structure is located at Rue de la Loi (Dutch: Wetstraat) and surrounded by various European and international institutions. That part of the town forms what is called the "European district."
History
The plot of land on which the building was constructed was originally occupied by the convent of the Dames du Berlaymont. They managed an important girls’ school. In the 1960s, to anchor the European presence in Brussels, the Belgian State bought the plot; the Dames du Berlaymont moved to Waterloo. A new building was built from 1963 to 1969 with 240,000 m² of floor space on 18 levels; it became the symbol of the European presence in Brussels. Its 3,000 Commission civil servants stayed in place from 1967 to 1991, when it was decided that a complete renovation was necessary and that asbestos protecting the steel structure had to be removed. The refurbishment lasted over a decade, with the EC headquarters returning to the building in 2004.
Architecture
Architect Lucien De Vestel designed the original building with the cooperation of Jean Gilson, Jean Polak, and André Polak. It consists in a cross-shaped tower, with 13 floors, situated on a wide four-levels basement. Four wings radiating out from a central hub constitute the tower. The floors of the wings are supported by a steel structure hanged to pretensioned beams placed on the top of a narrow reinforced concrete structure. Offices for 3,000 officials and meeting rooms are in the tower. Restaurant and services, TV studio, conference rooms, storage rooms, car parking and various services occupy the basement.
Architects Pierre Lallemand, Steven Beckers and Wilfried Van Campenhout were the authors of the 1997-2004 remodeling of the building. The main modifications included a meeting room on the top of the south-east wing, a complete structure with three meeting rooms constructed on the north-east side of the terrain, a double façade placed around the tower with movable glass panes at the outside, large openings in the ground floor to allow natural light distribution in the basement.
See also
