Waterberg

English translation

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Description

Introduction

DRINKING WATER BUILDING "De Waterberg" of the high reservoir type, built in 1884 on behalf of the N.V. Arnhemsche Waterleiding-Maatschappij. This water supply network was taken over by the municipality of Arnhem in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and since 1990 has been in the hands of NUON.

The technical design was in the hands of engineer Hidde Petrus Nicolaas Halbertsma. The architectural design of the buildings (mostly water towers) was often in the hands of architects. The small tower with access to the underground water reservoir in Arnhem was executed according to a design in the eclectic style of the architect Th. G. Schill.

This water reservoir, worked into a natural slope underground, was and is intended to maintain sufficient pressure on the network, and as a buffer supply in order to balance the difference between the supply of water and the consumption of drinking water by users. The rolling landscape around Arnhem offered the possibility of installing such a large building underground, and not, as is customary in flat Netherlands, in the form of a water tower.

This drinking water building consists of a circular reservoir and a small tower projecting above ground level with access. The building is located north of the Arnhem city centre at the edge of park Klarenbeek, and is situated at a high point (approximately 70 metres above NAP) at the northwestern corner of the Hommelseweg and the Wagnerlaan, near the water tower "De Steenen Tafel" dating from 1926-1928.

Description

The above-ground small tower has a cylindrical building volume on a circular ground plan (diameter approximately 2 metres) and is closed off by an overhanging constricted spire. The brickwork is laid in header bond. The facade is articulated horizontally by a two-part hard stone plinth, a brick-and-stone course and a drip moulding of sandstone and a closing main cornice consisting of a brick architrave, a hard stone frieze (profiled drip moulding, blocks placed at regular intervals with circular motifs and a profiled top, coping slab) and a laid-up cornice with denticil course of yellow brick. Two hard stone steps provide access to the entrance: an iron panel door with rivets, splayed reveals, profiled hard stone corbel stones on which a sandstone lintel with rod profile and the inscription "WATERLEIDING", a blind segmental arch with sandstone impost and springer stones with diamond points and tile mosaic in red and yellow brick. The entrance section is flanked on either side by a narrow and shallow niche with a hard stone drip edge and a closing round arch at the level of the sandstone brick-and-stone course. Above both round arch niches is a hard stone block laid in with in high relief a curled shield on which the inscriptions: "ANNO" and "1884". Above the entrance is at the level of the architrave a long hard stone block laid in with the inscription: "HOOG RESERVOIR". The six-sided, strongly constricted tower spire has an overhang with lead drip moulding on worked corbels and is covered with lead lozenges and fluting. The spire is crowned by a ball finial on which four sprouting bell flowers and a weather vane.

The underground reservoir has a circular ground plan with four concentric rings. The small tower rests on the innermost ring which originally enclosed a cast iron spiral staircase (staircase has been removed). The first, second and third rings consist respectively of four, twelve and twenty cast iron columns with simple bell capitals and imposte of iron H-beams. At a later stage an extra rectangular support was placed between each pair of columns. The massive outer ring wall is constructed of clinker bricks. The circular spaces between the rings are vaulted over by brick trough vaults with a concrete fill and a cladding layer of clinker bricks.

Valuation

DRINKING WATER BUILDING "De Waterberg" from 1884.

- Of architectural-historical value as a fine example of a water supply network, designed by the renowned hydraulic engineer H.P.N. HALBERTSMA (1853-1829) who in the last decades of the nineteenth century designed such drinking water supplies for a large number of Dutch cities and villages. Within his nationally significant oeuvre, which consists mainly of water towers, the Arnhem high reservoir occupies an important place, not least because of the underground construction with cast iron columns in concentric rings. The above-ground access tower according to a design in the eclectic style of architect Th. G. Schill stands out for high-quality aesthetic qualities in the exterior, such as fine proportions, rich use of materials (brick, hard stone and sandstone, wood, zinc and iron) and special ornamentation (natural stone blocks with inscriptions and decorations, carved corbels, finial with sprouting bell flowers and weather vane). The object is also important because of its architectural integrity.

- Of urban planning value because of the characteristic siting for Arnhem-North at a high point in a natural slope; as part of Park Klarenbeek (one of the green lobes in Arnhem); in relation to the somewhat higher water tower "De Steenen Tafel".

- Of cultural-historical value as a special expression of the development of the drinking water supply in Arnhem; as a rare example in the Netherlands of a high reservoir placed in a naturally hilly terrain, of which the large underground work is hidden from view; because of the typological and functional rarity, connected with the early establishment (1884) in Arnhem of a water supply by the private N.V. Arnhemsche Waterleiding-Maatschappij.

Cultural-historical description

H.P.N. HALBERTSMA (1853-1829) was one of the most famous water supply engineers in the Netherlands in the last decades of the nineteenth century. After Halbertsma had followed a building technical education at the Königliche Polytechnische Schule in Aachen and the Polytechnische Schule in Hannover, he assisted the Dresden engineer B. Salbach in 1880 with the execution of the water supply of Groningen. After that he was successively established as an engineer in Rotterdam (1881-1887), Leeuwarden (1887-1889) and The Hague (1889-). He designed the water supplies of Arnhem (1884), Vlaardingen (1885), Schiedam (1886), Delden (1894), Tilburg and Bussum (1897), Roermond (1898) and Velp (1899).