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The office blocks of the EU are concentrated along and between the two wide boulevards - rues de la Loi and Belliard - which Leopold II built to connect his Parc du Cinquantenaire with the city centre. It's not an interesting area to visit as the EU remains committed to modernistic, state-of-the-art high-rises - surprising given the difficulties it has had with its best-known construction, the Centre Berlaymont , a huge office building on rue de la Loi beside Metro Schuman. When it was opened in 1967, the Berlaymont was widely praised for its ground-breaking design, but in 1991 it was abandoned for health and safety reasons - the building was riddled with asbestos and work still continues on its refurbishment. Although EU buildings dominate this segment of the city, a small stretch of late nineteenth-century urban planning has survived, a ten-minute walk north of the Centre Berlaymont past the shops and cafes of rue Archimede. Here, two pleasant and leafy plazas - squares Ambiorix and Marie-Louise - were laid out in the 1870s on what had previously been marshland. By the end of the century, they had formed, along with the short avenue Palmerston which linked them, one of the city's most fashionable suburbs, where the residences of the bourgeoisie included several splendid examples of Art Nouveau. Nowadays, square Ambiorix is largely overshadowed by modern apartments, but you shouldn't miss the superb wrought-iron and swirling stone facade of no. 11, one of the city's most ornate Art Nouveau buildings and the one-time home of a painter by the name of Georges de Saint-Cyr. Nearby, on avenue Palmerston , the Villa Germaine, at no. 24, exhibits striking patterned tiles and multicoloured bricks and down at the foot of the street are three wonderfully subtle buildings by Victor Horta: there's the austere facade of no. 3, whose white and blue stone trimmings lead round to an exuberant side-entrance; no. 2 is a charming corner house with a delicately carved, fluted stone facade; and no. 4 has a rigorous design softened by arched lintels and mosaics. The south side of square Marie-Louise is occupied by a series of big old houses whose stone trimmings, balconies, dormer windows and high gables jostle each other. Leading off from the square is rue du Taciturne , whose most interesting building is no. 34, a lavish structure with an elegant facade of intricate window grilles and tiny black columns. It was designed by Paul Saintenoy, who was also responsible for the Old England building. Rue du Taciturne leads back to rue de la Loi, from where it's a couple of minutes' walk west to Metro Maalbeek
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