l'îlot Saint-Michel

The island of Saint-Michel is a complex of modern buildings. The complex was built west of the Place Sint-Lambert and opened in September 1999. It has shops, offices and homes.

In the 1960s, politicians and technicians agreed to adapt the center of Liège to car traffic. The Lejeune Plan was adopted in 1968. It includes the plan to turn Sint-Lambertplein into a highway intersection and to create a large bus station and two thousand parking spaces in the basement.

The development plan involves a lot of demolition work. As a result, the entire district between Place Saint-Lambert and Rue Haute-Sauvenière will disappear during the 1970s. For years, Place St Lambert has been a big hole and a construction site.

Several projects followed each other until 1984, when architect Claude Strebelle was commissioned to completely redesign the layout of the city center, taking into account all parties involved. In 1985 he made a first master plan and developed the ideas into what stands today.

The complex consists of four buildings around three pedestrian streets, the Rue Saint-Michel, the Rue de l'Official and the Rue de la Popculaire. The various buildings on the island were designed by the architects Claude Strebelle (coordinator), Bruno Albert, Lemaire & Gérard and Bernard Herbecq, Jean-Noël Capart (landscape architect) and Atelier du Sart-Tilman. Artists Jean Glibert, Léon Wuidar and Dan Van Severen have created works of art that are integrated into the complex.