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HOUSING BLOCK DE COOPVAERT
DAM & PARTNERS, 1993-2006, Plein 1940/Blaak 502-766, Rotterdam
Woongebouw De Coopvaert / Housing Block De Coopvaert ( Dam & Partners )
© 2011 Ossip van Duivenbode

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Cees Dam
Dam & Partners
Diederik Dam

BUILDING TYPE:
Housing


RELATED BUILDINGS:
High-Rise Zone Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the pre-eminent Dutch city when it comes to high-rise, beginning with Het Witte Huis, the country's first skyscraper. High-rise was made possible by such technological advances as the lift (1854) and the use of steel and reinforced concrete. Of course, taller buildings had been erected before, such as the 64 metre tall tower of the St. Laurenskerk. The record then passed in 1931 to the electricity board building (64 m.), then to the Medical Faculty (114 m.) and the headquarters of Nationale-Nederlanden (151 m.), to the Maastoren, with 165 metres the tallest building in the Netherlands.
For years there had been plans to erect high-rise on the very site of the Incassobank. When this last-named was declared a city monument, this construction work had to be done next to it instead. De Coopvaert, a new 104 metre tall residential tower, is raised up on three concrete columns to retain a view of the Incassobank's remarkable corner. The lowest levels contain office space, above which is a solid transitional structure for storage and plant, with 119 apartments above that on the ninth to the thirtieth storey. There is a separate block for parking at the rear, reached from the tower by a walkway. The sand-coloured concrete facades stress the building's verticality.