Brussels Business District
QUARTIER NORD, FINANCIAL DISTRICT, FINANCE TOWER, DEXIA TOWER, MANHATTAN CENTER

Just to the North of the old city center, Brussels financial district is situated with its glass and steel skyscrapers and trafficated roads. The area is called Quartier Nord (Northern Quarters). This is where you find Belgium's tallest buildings, except for Tour du Midi (the tallest one) that is south of the city center. The Finance Tower is the tallest building in Belgium if you count the mast, and the diagonal Rogier (Dexia) Tower, the glass skyscrapers of World Trade Center, Belgacom Towers and the modernist Manhattan Center complex can be found here, as well as the large shopping mall City 2, large international chain hotels and sculptures. There are also blocks with old buildings close to the skyscrapers. It is also here you find the large North railway station (Gare du Nord) and Jardin Botanique (the Botanical Garden).
 

The skyline of Brussels Business District. Chaotic traffic jams are common, like here on Boulevard du Jardin Botanique.
 

The skyline of Brussels Business District from the left: Sheraton, Dexia Tower, Covent Garden B, Belgacom Towers


Finance Tower (Tour Finances) is Brussels second tallest skyscraper, after Tour du Midi, at 145m to the roof. If the mast is counted, it is the tallest (174m).

  


Finance Tower was completed in 1985, but in 2008 the whole exterior was recladded in a more modern colour and the external elevator was removed. It has 36 floors.


Base of Finance Tower

 
Embracing female nude sculptures at the base of the Finance Tower   Sculptures outside Finance Tower  


Sculptures outside Finance Tower

 


Dexia Tower (or Rogier Tower), sometimes called Martini Tower. A glass skyscraper with diagonal lines on top. The height is 137m to the top, making it the 3rd tallest building in Belgium (2014), soon 4th.

  


Rogier Tower was built in 2006.


The logo of Rogier Tower. The skyscraper that was demolished on the site to make way for the new tower was also called Rogier or Martini Tower.
 

Place Charles Rogier in The Financial District of Brussels with Sheraton/Manhattan Center to the North, the small scale Hotel Siru in the middle and Dexia Tower to the right.

 

  
Sheraton Hotel, Manhattan Center   Manhattan Center  

 

 


Belgacom Towers. Two telecom office buildings from 1996 connected by a skybridge. Here seen from the train.

  


Belgacom Towers, the tallest is 138m tall


The flagpole on top of Belgacom Towers

 
Place Charles Rogier with Crowne Plaza Hotel to the right   City 2 is the largest urban shopping center in Belgium. But many of the 104 stores were closed and it looked pretty dull inside.   Older buildings on Boulevard du Jardin Botanique

 
Dexia Tower at Place Charles Rogier   The postmodern building to the right is Euroclear Operation Center, 1997   Towards the cathedral Sacre-Coeur

 
Dexia Tower   Hotel Siru/WTC    

 
        Boulevard du Jardin Botanique

 
Place Charles Rogier with Sheraton, Dexia Tower, Covent Garden   Looking towards the Cathedral   Traffic can be really chaotic in Brussels at rush hours. At this intersection at Rue Royale we witness 5 near accidents in just a minute!

 
WTC, 3 dark glass towers, built 1973-83   Covent Garden B from 2007, 100m   Dexia Tower