Nutsbedrijf, Streekweg 235

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction WATER TOWER, built in 1930 on behalf of the Provincial Water Supply Company of North Holland, designed by ir. B.F. van Nievelt and ir. W. Mensert. The water tower stands north of the Streekweg, from which the tower is reached via a straight access road. At the beginning of the access road stand two mirrored service dwellings between which there was originally an entrance structure to close off the access road. The architecture of the water tower, which aims at achieving as large an optical unity as possible between the tower shaft and reservoir section, shows affinity with the Amsterdam School. NB The service dwellings fall outside the protection. Description Water tower built on a twelve-sided ground plan with a height of 49.10 metres, executed in red brick around a skeleton and a water reservoir in reinforced concrete. The twelve-sided building volume is topped by a sharply tapering twelve-sided wooden roof truss, which is crowned with a similar lantern and is covered with slate in Dutch bonding. The skeleton consists of 24 columns arranged in an inner and outer ring of 12 columns each. The water reservoir has a circular cross-section with a flat floor and in fact contains two reservoirs, an inner and an outer reservoir, with capacities of 600 and 400 cubic metres respectively. The combined usable capacity is 920 cubic metres. The shaft of the water tower is vertically articulated by the twelve outer columns of the skeleton. The shaft has a horizontal articulation in three sections: the lower section in which the masonry against and between the columns lies in the same plane; the middle section, in which the masonry between the columns is strongly set back; the upper section (reservoir section) in which the masonry between the columns is lightly set back. The plinth of the lower section and the transitions between the three sections and between the upper section and the roof truss are formed by heavy horizontal moulding in granite. The same material is used in the bases of the columns. The tower stands on a grounded plinth with, at the level of the entrance structure, a wide staircase in red brick. The entrance structure contains a double wooden door. In each of the twelve wall surfaces are pairs of narrow rectangular windows with metal glazing bars. The middle section has in six of the twelve wall surfaces vertical light slots with clear leaded glass. Each of the twelve wall surfaces has below the projecting moulding of the upper section a parapet which is supported in the middle by a console. Behind the parapets are steel doors with a small pane. The upper section has in each of the twelve wall surfaces a vertical light slot with clear leaded glass. The lantern has a continuous horizontal window band with twelve square wooden sashes. The interior is largely intact and contains among other things a granito floor on the ground floor and a cast-iron spiral staircase in the heart of the reservoir. Valuation The well-preserved water tower is important from an architectural-historical and cultural-historical perspective because of the quality of the design and typological value, as well as because of its significance as an element in the history of drinking water supply in the Netherlands. Also of great situational value because of its distinctive silhouette in the townscape.