The Atomium, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World Expo, was renovated between 2004 and 2006. Because I had never visited it before, I wanted to take a look before the restoration. It’s now covered in stainless steel but the original plating was aluminium, and the windows were made of acrylic as far as I could tell…
The nightmarish elevator ride to the top:
The railings of the original stairs had this amusing vintage “atomic” theme. I’m not sure they kept these after the restoration. Same for the atomium-themed carpet.
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The escalators were one of the big attractions in 1958, but these were all non-functional in 2003 – if you think this looks like a total death trap, you are probably right…
The interior was dark and gloomy and rather embarrassingly decorated.
would there be a model inside the model?
Most of the spheres were not accessible, for some reason someone put disco lights in the closed tubes:
The stairs that are actually used by visitors:
The observation deck would give a nice view except that the perspex windows were much deteriorated…
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Mini Europe, Planetarium, Oceade, Kinepolis and Heyzel stadium 
centenary palace convention halls
Some construction elements, not looking so good:
I’m not sure if this was supposed to be art or temporary storage of junk, sorry hypothetical artist!
