After 13 years and €670m spent, ‘Berlaymonstre’ breathes again

By Martin Banks

Date: 09/09/04

THEY call it the "Berlaymonstre" but after an estimated €670 million makeover and 13 years' closure, the monster breathes again this month. The European Commission's flagship building, the Berlaymont, will once more become a hub of activity.

In the coming months, one-sixth of the Commission's 18,000 Brussels-based staff will be moved into the Berlaymont, including the legal service, the secretariat-general, the commissioners and their cabinets.

The 241,515 square-metres building contains 2,200 offices, a 294-seat press room and six conference rooms with full interpretation facilities.

The future nerve-centre of the Commission is at the top of the tower, on the 13th floor, where the 25-strong College of commissioners will meet. With its own lift directly linking it to the ground floor, the room is probably one of the most secure in the whole building. It has small windows to reduce the danger of terrorist attacks and a huge oval table equipped with computers that retract into the desk after use. It seats up to 35 - plenty of room for new members and abundant space for the new College of 25 to stretch out. A formal seating plan is yet to be agreed for incoming president José Manuel Barroso, his four vice-presidents and the rest.

The 13th floor, which has a particularly fine view of the Brussels skyline, will also be home to Barroso when he takes up office on 1 November. His facilities border on the palatial compared with the anonymous-looking offices that his predecessors, Romano Prodi and Jacques Santer, had to make do with. The new president will have two offices, one official (for visitors) and another one for his private work. He also has two dining rooms: an official, 50-seater one, for when he is entertaining (complete with interpreters' booths: presumably in case there are any problems over the menu), and a smaller, private one.

The Berlaymont was closed during the reign of Jacques Delors after the asbestos content of the walls was judged a potential health hazard. André Mambourg, the Commission's assistant director for infrastructures, says that hardly anything has been kept of the Berlaymont's original design, even though when it opened in 1967 it was hailed as highly innovative.

"The place has been gutted," he said. "When the asbestos was removed, the building was totally reshaped and we just kept the skeleton. Everything you see is new: new offices, new equipment, everything is new."

Additions to the building's design include a 45-seat cinema and two saunas, perhaps because the Finns have joined the EU since the original Berlaymont was closed. But there is still no helicopter pad.

"We tried to install one in the "old" Berlaymont but there were problems with the wind so we didn't bother this time," said Mambourg.

At the VIP entrance on Boulevard Charlemagne, there are 28 flagpoles: 25 for the current members and three for the candidate countries. The security features include a heavy armoured gate and retractable bollards. Specially-fitted anti-demonstration walls have been installed outside the building on the rue de la Loi side.

Inside the ground-floor entrance there is a huge piazza, so large there are several signposts to help visitors find their way about. The lobby gardens are watered by rainwater collected and channelled from the roofs. The environmentally friendly systems will also use rainwater to flush toilets and urinals.

The overall impression is of much light. The system of shutters is even more hi-tech than the famously noisy system on the old Berlaymont. The temperature throughout the building will be kept at a constant 21° centigrade.

Offices have moveable partitions which will be adjusted according to a hierarchical window and floor-space system that reflects seniority. For example, a commissioner will probably have six to seven windows, a director-general five, a director four and a head of unit, three.

A commissioner can expect an office of at least 75 square metres, compared with the lowest-ranking staff who will have a single window and 12-15 square metres.

Large amounts of glass and wood have been used in the renovation. Environmental campaigners Greenpeace declared the site a "forest crime scene", claiming that illegally logged wood had been used in its refurbishment. The allegations were dismissed by Mambourg, who, pointing to the wood fittings, says: "I can assure you that only wood from sustainable sources has been used here."

The Commission used to rent the Berlaymont from the Belgian state. Legal changes mean it can now own property. The Commission is contributing €503m to the renovation costs, buying the building structure for €50m and the land for a symbolic €1. That translates to purchase of the Berlaymont and land for €553m .

Despite all the protracted financial problems, Neil Kinnock, the outgoing commissioner who has been charged with negotiating with the Belgian government, is in no doubt that it has been well worth the effort.

"It has been renovated at a reasonable cost and yes, it is good value for money," he declared. "This is a simple, functional but attractive building and will, I am sure, prove a good working environment for Barroso and the new Commission."

Berlaymont: then and now

• THE building takes its name from "les Dames du Berlaymont", a community of Augustinian nuns who occupied the convent that previously stood on the land;
• the original building housed 3,000 staff;
• the first EU civil servants moved in in 1967;
• large quantities of asbestos were used in its construction to insulate it against fire;
• some 1,500 tonnes of asbestos was removed by workmen kitted out in special suits, gloves and even underwear;
• the new building has 45 lifts and 12 escalators, four car parks for 1,223 vehicles, six internal gardens, 70 interpretation booths and a 900-seat self-service restaurant, serving up to 2,700 meals a day.

The European Commission's flagship building, the Berlaymont, has been reopened after an extensive makeover.