![]() ![]() Since then, conservative changes have been made to the design - apartment sizes came down and double-height floors were dropped in favour of more saleable space. The client had their confidence shaken, he says, and the work stopped. OMA's associate in charge, Kees van Casteren, links this directly to the events of 9/11. ![]() Commissioned in 1997, at a peak of European optimism, the project came to an abrupt halt in 2001. These numbers don't reflect the current demands of Rotterdam, where up to 70 per cent of office space lies fallow and the residential market is stagnant. Each tower houses up to 45 floors the total cost is stated as €340m. The development comprises a gross floor area of 162,000 sq m, including 72,000 sq m of office space, 240 apartments and a 285-room hotel. Perplexing is another, both for its tricksy geometry and in terms of whether the building itself makes sense after its stop-start history, tracking 16 years from design to completion. Impressive is one word to describe OMA's transparent agglomeration, dominating the waterfront of historic Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid district. The articulated bulk of De Rotterdam looks out onto the city harbour At night, the building's otherwise featureless facade is animated by changing patterns of work, rest and play. Three narrowly separated towers shift on their axes like their reflections on the water before them, their massive volumes seem unstable. Above a simple concrete pediment, its glazed grid spreads uniformly across glitchy, broken surfaces. The largest single building in the Netherlands, De Rotterdam is undoubtedly massive, but it plays tricks on you. It is only fitting to start by describing De Rotterdam visually, since its sheer size and glassy brilliance insist on it being noticed. Sixteen years on from its conception, and after a stop-start history coloured by global crisis and loss of confidence, November 2013 saw the completion of the gargantuan De Rotterdam - The Rotterdam - the latest contribution to the city from its most prodigious architectural offspring, OMA ![]()
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