 The City of Brussels bought the old zoological gardens and converted them into a public recreational park containing a variety of diversions, including the current Museum of Natural Sciences.In 1884, Ernest Solvay and Paul Héger, professors at the Université Libre de Bruxelles began a project to create an expanded university campus in the park.Several of the university's new institutes were created in the park, and stand to this day, including the original site of the Solvay Institute of Sociology, as well as its sister institution, the Solvay Institute of Physiology, which was completed in 1894.