Tour and Taxis (transport hub)

Brussels, Belgium
1897--1907
Beginning in the early twentieth century, railroad, customs, and maritime interests in Brussels converged at Tour and Taxis, a model transportation hub. For decades, the complex was a city within a city. Inspired by the Flemish Renaissance vernacular style, the warehouses and related structures engagingly exploited the properties of cast-iron, reinforced concrete, steel, and glass. With the formation of the European Community, customs and storage practices changed, rendering much of the facility obsolete. Although elsewhere in the world examples abound demonstrating how former industrial sites can be sensitively and respectfully readapted, developers here will soon destroy the integrity of the Tour and Taxis architectural assemblage. Regional authorities granted developers permission to dismantle two of the most important buildings for a concert complex, commercial galleries, and parking garage. Additional schemes threaten to destroy the integrity of the rest of the site. No comprehensive plan has considered the potential of the whole site. Proposals that better respect the patrimony have been made, to no avail. The approved construction permits spell demise for Tour and Taxis, an irreparable loss of identity and culture for Brussels.

Listed in 1996 | 1998