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Glass Buildings

Architecture

Restorations, preservations and innovations ...

Corinthia Brussels Rue Royale facade by night_CGI.jpg

For nearly 100 years, the Grand Hotel Astoria was the destination in Brussels, frequented by
dignitaries and celebrities. But it closed in 2007 with a plan for restoration. In November 2024,
after 17 years in vacant disrepair, it is set to reopen as the Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels ... what the new owners promise is the most luxurious hotel in the city

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Like the giant, decorative camellias hanging from its lobby ceiling, the award-winning Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp hotel is extraordinary, distinctive and artful. One of only a handful of 5-star superior hotels in Belgium, it is also among the 450 Leading Hotels of the World. Like so many things in this country, the Botanic Sanctuary was built from centuries of heritage and showcases gastronomy. Intertwined, as its name suggests, is the beautiful and soothing world of plants. 

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First opened in 1890, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, officially the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (KMSKA), has been a pillar of the Belgian art world for more than a century ... The KMSKA closed in 2011 for comprehensive renovation, restoration and expansion. On 24 September 2022, it re-opens to the public as a work of art itself.

Hotel Solvay First Floor+Staircase-Angela Dansby.jpg

Hotel Solvay is the result of a unique partnership: the money of Armand Solvay and the genius of Victor Horta combining to create an astonishing mansion. It is Horta's largest private design and the only that retained almost all of its original furniture.

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A generation ago, the Gare Maritime in the Tour & Taxis industrial site was an abandoned wasteland. It is now a model for urban renewal and sustainable architecture. Its reopening offers a new vision for Brussels.

IMG_4282-Bruxella 1238 double oculi VERTICAL by Angela Dansby.heic

The Portal to Medieval Brussels

The Brussels Times Magazine

Some three decades ago, an archaeological site opened under the former stock exchange of Brussels (Bourse), which contained the tomb of the city’s first duke and
remains of a 13th century monastery. Known as Bruxella 1238, it has been overhauled in parallel with the Bourse’s transformation
into Belgian Beer World.

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