RESIDENTIAL

Panorama is located on the site of the former Brussels Government Administrative Centre (RAC) on Boulevard Pachéco. It's a spot steeped in history.

In the 17th century, the monks of the Brussels Oratorian Monastery cultivated the rich, fertile soil of their terraced gardens here. However, in 1821, those gardens disappeared to make way for an urbanisation project by the City of Brussels. The site was designed to have a raised and lowered part, the effect of which can still be seen today. The raised section would become the Panoramaplein, which is where the Congress Column was built between 1850 and 1859, designed by the architect Joseph Poelaert.

The site spent nearly a century as a construction site while the North-South railway connection was being laid. In 1955, the Council of Ministers ordered the construction of an administrative centre between Boulevard Pachéco and Rue Royale. Their objective was to centralise the Belgian administration.

It took an impressive 27 years, from 1958 to 1985 to build this gargantuan complex. It featured giant offices, a long esplanade, huge car parks, and a geometric garden by René Pechère. The monumental Finance Tower soared high above the other buildings at the northern side of the centre. And until 2003, thousands of civil servants worked in the RAC. Afterwards, however, the site fell into obscurity, becoming a sort of no man's land between the upper and lower city. Now, however, an ambitious Master Plan is changing all that. A dynamic new urban district is now making its début on the site where the RAC once stood.