Farmer’s Tower

Boerentoren

Architect: Jan Vanhoenacker, Jos Smolderen, Emiel Van Averbeke

Address: Schoenmarkt 35, Antwerp, Belgium

Project:1928

Completion:1929-32

Floors:26

Height:96 m

office buildings

skyscraper

The Farmer's Tower (Boerentoren, Torengebouw, now KBC Tower), completed in 1932 in the Art Deco style, was the tallest building in Belgium until 1960 and held the title of the tallest building in Antwerp until 2019. In the 1970s, the building, which had previously been visited by 150,000 people annually, was closed to the public. Since 1981, the property has been protected as a historical monument. In 2020, the building was purchased by the logistics company KatoenNatie, which subsequently organized a competition for reconstruction, in which Daniel Libeskind won in November 2022 along with the local studio ELD. The completion of the reconstruction is scheduled for 2028.

Ahead of the centenary of Belgian independence in 1930, Antwerp, an important harbour city on the River Scheldt, was elected to host a major international exhibition on ‘Colonies, Seafaring and Flemish Art’. In the run-up, in 1928, the first design for an 87.5 meter high residential tower, then the tallest in Europe, by architects Jan Vanhoenacker and Jos Smolderen was approved on the advice of city architect Emiel Van Averbeke. Because of the stake of the Farmers Union in the bank that commissioned the project, it was soon dubbed the “Farmer’s Tower”. Construction of the brick and stone-clad steel structure started in 1929. At the top was a large water tank, and just below it, on the twenty-fourth floor, a publicly accessible panorama hall, which opened in March 1932. After having attracted up to 150,000 people visitors per year, it closed to the public in the early 1970s. The building became a listed monument in 1981 based on its historic value of public interest. An additional assessment in 2019 also recognised the architectural and artistic value.

Docomomo Belgium