Watertoren-Noord

English translation

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Description

Introduction WATER TOWER, a free-standing structure situated on a large interior courtyard behind the Noorderbinnensingel at the edge of the old inner city and the Noorderplantsoen, built in 1907-1908 on behalf of the N.V. Groninger Waterleiding as water supplier for the Academic Hospital by A. Wilke & Co. Dampfkessel und Gasometer Fabrik Braunschweig from Germany, presumably designed by C. Francke from Bremen. After the water tower at the Hereweg (1880, demolished in 1970), this tower was the second water tower of the city of Groningen. Shortly after, in 1911-1912, the substantial water tower at the Hofstede de Grootkade was erected. The North water tower is the first water tower in the Netherlands with a steel substructure. Only three of this type were built in the Netherlands. The water tower has been out of use since 1977. In 1988 the tower was restored and since then a new purpose for the tower has been sought. In 1990 the municipality held a competition with the title 'Who sees a future in a tower?'. Description The 45-metre-high tower consists of a shaft - for the inlet and outlet pipes - and a cast-iron spiral staircase surrounding it and a cantilever construction of profiled and riveted iron beams. The six-sided open steel substructure with cross-bracing and horizontal beams rests on eight heavy concrete pillars. The water reservoir with a capacity of 1000 cubic metres rests with its cylindrical section on the substructure so that the hemispherical underside of this reservoir is completely free and accessible. The spherical, black-painted reservoir is made of steel plates, joined together by rows of rivets. It has a twelve-sided zinc tent roof on wooden rafters and is enclosed by a shell of reinforced concrete. A twelve-sided brick cladding is applied to the outside. The substantial plinth of the shaft is built of purple clinker brick; the remaining brickwork is of reddish-brown brick. Above the wooden entrance door on the north side is a natural stone cartouche with the construction year. The three storeys that the shaft displays are accentuated with profiled mouldings on either side of the ring that bundles the horizontal iron beams. A few metres below the leak floor is an iron gallery, which is marked with a frieze and profile bands. The narrow tall windows in the shaft have voussoirs, keystones and sills of natural stone. The reservoir with leak loft has on each of its twelve sides two rectangular windows, one above the other, of which the upper ones are slightly higher than the lower ones. The whole is covered with a twelve-sided tent roof with a lantern-like, wooden structure at two-thirds of the volume. Evaluation Water tower with a unique design and construction, which is closely connected with its function, of general importance because of its architectural-historical value, because of its particular importance for the history of building techniques, as well as because of its unique significance as a valuable monument of industry and technology and because of its distinctive position in the urban landscape. The municipality is of the opinion that the building, as an industrial archaeological monument, is also of national importance.