Het Veem

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

Warehouse 'Het Veem' (formerly Oranje Nassau) forming part of the contiguous warehouse buildings on the Oude Houthaven on the IJ, as the first large-scale storage building of the Westelijk Havengebied, adjoining the Noordzeekanaal. The warehouse design by Foeke and Roelof Kuipers from 1896 (construction 1897) for the 'Naamlooze Vennootschap Het Nederlandsche Veem', is executed in the manner of Transition architecture with both early Rationalist and historicising, medieval-appearing elements. The rear side borders the quay, the front side borders the through road, originally with a connection to the goods railway line.

N.B. In 1914 the warehouse was converted by W.J.J. Scherjon. The warehouse now houses artist studios, a theatre and small cultural businesses.

The conversions after 1914 are of subordinate importance for protection.

Description

The veem building has a basement and four storeys on a rectangular ground plan and is constructed in yellow brick (English bond), under a bent gabled roof with lantern. The 60 metre wide facades are articulated by red brick bands at the height of the springing points of the window arches which consist of a double roller course. The drip moulds are executed in hardstone. The basement windows contain 3x2-pane arched iron frames. The symmetrically arranged front facade contains alternating bays with in the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth bay arched or semi-circular hoist openings and in the remaining bays per storey always three arched windows. The fourth and eighth bay, where the goods lifts were located, are set back and crowned by a projecting part with crenellations. At the sixth bay a projecting, built-out part with crenellations (intended for a hoist installation), at the height of the fourth storey. The five window bays with a hoist shutter opening have a loading stair executed in concrete or iron with tube railings. The three tall projections are provided with a hardstone coping and three semi-circular arch windows and are braced by an iron structure. On either side of the hoist openings there are a few narrow (eight-pane) windows. The bays without hoist shutter opening have on the ground floor fifteen-pane windows and on the storeys twelve-pane. The innermost two bays always two per storey, the other bays three per storey. Entirely on the left there is the entrance in a porch with wrought iron railings and hardstone steps. The original panel door is placed in a frame on hardstone sills and likewise cill. The fanlight is formed by a semi-circular closed six-pane fanlight. Against the roof line there are bar anchors. Heavier executed specimens are found on the left in the party wall and in the right aisle. The right side facade, which borders a lane leading from the street to the quay, is blind except for one shutter on the second storey. At the height of the third and fourth floor slab there are several substantial wall anchors.

The (almost) symmetrical rear facade has no basement but a mezzanine on the attic storey. The corner bays have semi-circular stair towers, the uppermost storey three-sided built-out. The right tower, one storey higher than the left, has on the inside a tall, mortared chimney, which rises from a two-storey extension with sash windows. The round chimney is bevelled in the upper section. On the corner a corner stone as in the front facade. The access to the stair tower has an original panel door. In the third and fourth division of the tower there is a hardstone window with small relieving arches. The left tower, with only a few small windows, has a half conical roof against a stepped block form with one window in it. The facade has in the extension of hoist shutter openings of the front facade five spout gables. The hoist shutter openings have movable loading balconies. The window pattern is, also in the middle section, always with one narrow and three wider windows, the same as that of the front facade. Only at the corner bays no windows are placed. The mezzanine has per bay two coupled three-light windows above a profiled drip moulding.

The internal load-bearing structure consists of cast iron columns on which the main beams rest. The uppermost storey has riveted, arched trusswork beams, of which the spring point is found on the underside of the post. This structure, originally executed with sawtooth roofs, served for more light admission to the uppermost storey. Further in the interior panel doors and concrete partition walls.

Appreciation

The warehouse 'Het Veem' is of general importance due to cultural and architectural historical and industrial archaeological values as a predominantly well-preserved and early example of a late 19th-century storage building with mechanised loading and unloading techniques. The warehouse is of general importance from an urban planning perspective due to its prominent location on the Oude Houthaven and as a historical component of the first modern harbour development since the opening of the Noordzeekanaal.