Zaveltoren, Modern skyscraper in Pentagon, Belgium.
Zaveltoren is an 80-metre office tower completed in 1968, with 26 floors, the first four of which serve as garage levels. Its narrow pale facade is covered by a dense grid of small rectangular windows in regular rows and columns, rising above a cobbled street lined with older brick buildings.
The tower was built between 1966 and 1968 on the site of the first Maison du Peuple, designed by Victor Horta for the Belgian Workers' Party and inaugurated in 1899. That building was dismantled in 1965 to make way for the tower, an example of the urban renewal drive known as bruxellisation. The contractor Blaton gave the building its informal name.
The tower reflects how Brussels transformed during the 1960s, when new office buildings replaced older structures throughout the city. This shift shaped the modern character of the urban landscape that visitors see today.
The tower stands in the Sablon district of central Brussels, on the spot where Victor Horta's Maison du Peuple once stood. Its lower four floors serve as garage space, and the upper floors were long occupied by departments of the Federal Public Service Finance. The building is an office tower, not open to visitors.
The tower is also known as the Stevens Tower or Blaton Tower, the latter after the contractor that built it. From the upper floors there is a view over the Marolles, the Sablon and central Brussels.
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