Huize Tavenier

English translation

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Description

Introduction VILLA, originally named 'Vrederust', entirely detached and part of a series of villas on the south side of the Ubbo Emmiussingel, built in 1904 on commission of R. Hooites-Meursing, widow of a straw-cardboard manufacturer, designed by Groningen architect A.Th. van Elmpt and very refinedly developed in the building style of Art Nouveau. For the design of this luxurious and monumental villa Van Elmpt had the opportunity to gain inspiration abroad. The original metalwork that adorned the roof is no longer present. From 1949 to 1981 the villa was in use as a maternity clinic of the Diaconessenhuis and named after the first head nurse, sister Tavenier. For this purpose a still present lift was installed in the hall. Since 1981 the villa has been in use as an office. Description The building is erected on an irregular plan from a white facing brick and contains two storeys under an irregularly shaped tent roof, which is broken on all four sides by built-up gable tops. The building is situated approximately one metre above street level and has a high basement storey, which gives the building the impression of being placed on a high basement. A monumental curved drive is separated from the garden by a wrought-iron fence with stylised screen flowers, placed between hard stone balusters decorated with geometric motifs; a similar separation between drive and street has disappeared. The villa has broad terraces on the north and east sides with hard stone balustrades. The entrance is located in the northwestern corner under a portico. The wooden panel door is richly worked with floral motifs. In front of the north facade is a colonnade in red Bremer sandstone; on the storey above a loggia is installed. The free-standing columns are made from polished granite. The eastern part of this facade is open-worked with series of three windows each, of which the constructive parts, lintels, mullions and the like are executed in grey hard stone and the jambs and architraves in red Bremer sandstone. The east facade has an open portico with granite columns and sandstone friezes; the lintels are made from grey natural stone. The built-up gable top of the east wall projects three bricks. The rear facade on the Verbindingskanaal has a large extended conservatory and on the first floor terraces and an originally open loggia, which has been closed by means of three paired round-arch windows. In the western facade there is a second entrance, the tradesmen's entrance. Lintels, corner stones, balustrades, capitals and the like are formed and worked in geometric style. On the parapet of the windows, as well as on the architraves of the portico and loggia panels are installed with floral, vegetative and animal motifs, and symbols referring to virtues and industry, connected with the straw-cardboard industry, made from red Bremer sandstone by Groningen sculptor A.M. van der Lee. Under the roof gutter of the east, north and west facade there is a broad continuous frieze with painted-tile tableaux with geometric and floral motifs in white, blue, pink and ochre-yellow, made by studio Joost 't Hooft and Labouchère of De Porceleyne Fles from Delft. The built-up gable tops are covered with hard stone plates and contain carved heads and pilasters on the corners. Interior Of particular quality in the extremely richly furnished and decorated interior are among others the vestibule with white marble wainscoting and floor and worked wooden draught door with cut glass and the stained leaded-glass windows with abstract motifs in blue and purple with in the centre a realistic image of the straw-cardboard factory of the Hooites-Meursing family; the hall with polished marble columns, floors and wall panels of strongly veined Italian marble and the panel doors decorated with rich wood carving. Reliefs on the wooden lintels above the doors refer to the functions of the different salons. Furthermore of importance the extended garden room with conservatory with a refined decorated wooden wainscoting, wall and sideboard cabinets and painted ceiling with different flower motifs against a gold-coloured background and the leaded glass in the fanlights of the conservatory windows. Finally still of importance the long cross corridor with refined painted ceiling and stucco decorations and the door located at the end of this with fine etched glass. A broad staircase with landings with banisters executed in wood carving leads to the first floor. Originally the hall was provided with daylight by a light shaft in the roof and laterally by the later closed loggia in the south facade. Valuation Villa, erected in a very richly decorated Art Nouveau style designed by Groningen architect A.Th. van Elmpt, of general importance because of the rare beauty and integrity of the richly carved, constructive and decorative components and painted-tile tableaux in exterior and interior (components) as well as because of the exceptional architectural-historical significance for the stylistic period of Art Nouveau in the Netherlands. Moreover, the building forms an important architectural component in the high-quality urban planning structure of the ringroad series on the south side of the city of Groningen.