Publisher at Large: The Liège-Guillemins Railway Station

After spending a week in Belgium it was time to venture out. The location of Ghent made many destinations possible including Paris and Amsterdam. But family comes first and it was time to visit relatives in Germany and introduce them to my (very) new fiancé. So we went to Brussels to catch the train to Frankfurt.

My fiancé works for another design magazine and had heard about a train station in Brussels designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, which had opened that month. She asked me if we were going to that station but we were departing from Brussels Nord station.

About a half-hour outside of Brussels we were slowing to make another stop. as I looked out the window I saw a pedestrian bridge which reminded me of the bridge designed by Calatrava in Bilbao, Spain. I pointed it out to my fiancé and then we both looked at each other and then gawked out the window as we pulled into the Liège-Guillemins Railway Station.

I grabbed my camera and ran out of the train to get as many shots as I could before the train left the station three minutes later.
There is no mistaking Calatrava’s signature style. The white, airy structures with the tubular supports reminiscent of a whale or dinosaur skeleton. The station was very light and open with the dome seeming to float over the tracks. The form was flowing and organic with any hard edges seemingly eroded away.

If there is a train station in heaven, add some clouds and a layer of fog on the ground and this would be it.

I reluctantly got back on the train to resume the trip after snapping as many pictures as I could. We watched out the window as the station disappeared from view. It was definitely a serendipitous encounter.