ARCHITECTUURGIDS.NL / ARCHITECTUREGUIDE.NL

OFFICE BUILDING EERSTE HOLLANDSCHE LEVENSVERZEKERINGSBANK

G.A. VAN ARKEL, 1904-1905, Keizersgracht 174-176/Leliegracht, Amsterdam

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Gerrit van Arkel

EXTENSION:
Cornelis Wegener Sleeswijk

ASSISTING ARCHITECT:
Herman Hendrik Baanders

BUILDING TYPE:
Office buildings

This office building for the First Dutch Life Insurance Bank took the place of three canal houses. Van Arkel designed a chunky Art Nouveau building seven storeys high. As late as 1963 it was reviled as 'an architectural monstrosity with its garish colours and tile picture'. Salient points are the detailed entrance in gilded brick and the said tile picture in the tower. At the end of the 1960s the building was enlarged on both sides by C. Wegener Sleeswijk, thereby effecting a gradual transition from its high blind sidewalls to the less-tall neighbouring canal houses.