Gare Maritime is one of those places that make you feel proud to be living in Brussels. Built in 1907 in the Tour & Taxi site and once Europe’s largest railway station for goods, the Gare Maritime has recently undergone full renovation and the result is remarkable!
The historic building consists of three huge hangars with impressive steel roofs. When I first visited the site, the access roads had still to be built, so I walked to one of the side entrances and when the sliding doors opened my surprise was great: everywhere around and above my head, a multitude of wooden panels and stairs combined with steel structures and columns and the indoor gardens with plants and trees running all along the hangars gave off a feel of vegetation. The construction is also entirely energy-neutral and fossil-free. Furthermore, a lot of materials from the original building have been reused, such as paving stones and steel columns.
Gare Maritime is going to host offices, shops, restaurants, cafés, workshops, but it will, first of all, become a new covered neighbourhood where it is nice to go on a stroll and relax along its many green boulevards. It will also be a major venue in Brussels for public events and exhibitions.
I am pretty sure that Gare Maritime will become a reference location in the future. Be among the first ones to discover this fascinating site!
