Want to Live in an EU Administrative Building? Soon You Can
The EU sold 23 drab office buildings in Brussels to the state, which plans for almost one-third of the space to be converted to homes and shops.
A number of former European Union office buildings around Brussels’s Rue de la Loi, above, will be renovated into houses, with new shops at the street level.
Photo: Laurie Dieffembacq/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images
A well-known but much-derided neighborhood in central Brussels that houses most of the European Union’s chief institutions will soon be getting a makeover, with many offices to be converted into homes and ground-floor shops.
The EU sold 23 office buildings clustered around the city’s Rue de la Loi in the European Quarter to the Belgian state for €900 million ($980 million), encompassing 340,000 square meters, or roughly 3.6 million square feet. A call for proposals launched Friday by Brussels’s chief architect seeks renovations of the space, containing at least 25% housing, a quarter of it affordable, and 5% for retail.