Woonhuis, Weesperzijde 32 A

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

A building block with three TOWN HOUSES created in 1884-1885 on the corner of the Weesperzijde and the Ruyschstraat. Built on commission of the NV 'De IJsbreker', to a design by architect A.L. van Gendt in the style of the neorenaissance. The properties possibly served as a hotel in origin and in any case subsequently.

Description

Three coupled town houses on a rectangular plan. Each dwelling is three window bays wide and consists of a basement, piano nobile, above which two storeys and an attic storey. The block is covered by a truncated hipped roof covered with slates. At the location of the middle dwelling the hipped roof is somewhat higher and fitted with profiled wooden mouldings along the break lines. The originally present frost cresting has disappeared. The block is designed as one ensemble with emphasis on the central axis. The middle dwelling is treated as a projecting section. The facades are executed in a combination of red brickwork and natural stone and stucco. The basement has a rusticated natural stone cladding. Natural stone is also used for the cordon mouldings, which indicate the storeys, and for the pilaster strips, which mark the division of the block into three dwellings. The windows on the first and second storeys are straight-topped and have natural stone surrounds. Below the windows is a decoration in the form of a balustrade. On the second storey French doors and balconies. The window openings in the central bay of each dwelling are emphasized by a surround of composite half-columns, which on the first storey carry a triangular pediment and on the second storey a segmental pediment on scroll-shaped corbels. The third storey has per dwelling three times two coupled round-arched windows. The facades are terminated by a cornice running across the entire block with richly worked frieze with festoons and an overhanging drip moulding on corbels. Each dwelling has a roof dormer with hoisting crane. The middle dwelling is emphasized by a balcony three bays wide on the second storey and rusticated natural stone facade cladding, in the third and fourth storey limited to the central bay. The side facade on the Ruyschstraat is six window bays wide and comparably detailed, with the proviso that here per storey each time two sets of three windows are coupled. To close off the gardens a wall - partly with recent reconstruction - with the same detailing as the basement. In this is also incorporated a richly worked entrance, which connects to a somewhat recessed section of the side facade. The original front doors, window frames and divisions are still present, with the exception of the corner property where the front door and the windows of the basement have been altered.

The interior is richly ornamented with many original details still preserved such as profiled doors, stucco ceilings, wall panelling and staircases.

Evaluation

Building block with three town houses of general importance on account of its architectural-historical value. Well-preserved example of rich residential architecture from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The urban planning location - on the corner of the Ruyschstraat and opposite the Nieuwe Amstelbrug - forms an important added value. The block forms one of the most important townscape features of the buildings along the Weesperzijde on the Amstel embankments.