Jan Maijenschool

English translation

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Description

Introduction

Quadruple SCHOOL BUILDING (corridor type), designed in 1926 by architect J.W. Frantzen, employed at the Public Works Service. The double school was intended for General Primary Education (numbers 11-13), respectively for General Primary Education with Infant Education (numbers 15-17). The original names Vespucci, Mercator, Jan Evertsen and Jan Maijen School have merged into the latter. The building is executed in the style of the late Amsterdam School. Characteristic are the plastic façade with undulating elements, the varied application of ornamental brickwork and the long continuous window strips. The elongated school building is located on the south side of the Jan Mayenstraat, where it forms a plaza, and is enclosed by adjoining buildings on both sides. The toilet and work spaces are positioned at the front; the classrooms are located at the school courtyard, at the rear.

Description

The elongated three-storey school building is constructed in brick (Flemish bond) and has higher side wings, each of five bays, on either side of a central section eighteen bays wide. The flat roofs are accentuated by profiled panels. The central section is executed in red-grey bricks, the partly independent corner sections in yellow brick, with the exception of the last (entrance) bay. The corners of the corner sections are also raised higher, the outer half-cylindrical bricklaid, the inner block-shaped within the façade plane and with the same half-cylindrical form, but recessed and rotated 90 degrees inward. The yellow brick of the corner sections is continued in decorative bond around the window strip of the ground floor and over the crenellations of the recessed breastwork, which connects both corner sections. The plinth is executed in sintered brick and is raised higher around the three porches.

The symmetrically arranged front façade contains as its central axis a recessed double entrance section with two pairs of leaf doors under a arched porch roof. The sides of the porch are rounded. The four clamped beaded strip doors each contain a four-light. The door frame rests on stone sills and likewise threshold in a natural stone porch floor in which a 'stop stone' is placed between both doors. Above the porch roof, two undulating wall planes join in the masonry in their opposite directions, which also continue in two windows of the window strip of the first floor. The window strip on the ground floor, between the higher raised planes of the sintered plinth, consists of coupled five-light windows, with horizontal glazing bars, the fanlights executed as drop windows. The windows are separated from each other by a bulging natural stone wall dam. The windows all rest on wooden drip sills. The second storey has an identical window strip, from the central axis to the corner sections. The last window against the central axis comprises a variant of the coupled window with glazing bars. On the other side the strip ends in a sweeping façade section, which is partly drawn over the corner section executed in yellow brick. The third storey contains small square windows and ends before the corner section in a semi-circular corner. The corner sections contain on the storey, above the window strip of the ground floor, three double five-light windows with horizontal glazing bars. A fourth five-light window with horizontal glazing bars is located in the half-cylindrical façade section, which ends as a roof structure standing at right angles to the façade, raised high. The third storey contains the same five-light windows, two double and two, at the ends, coupled three each. The window at the outer corner is located under a sweeping wall plane that adjoins against the rounded bay. The wall plane next to the other three-light sweeps inward and goes partly behind the third storey of the central section with in line the crenellations. The transition to the adjoining buildings is formed by a bay of narrower width executed in red brick, except for a light gap, blind. This bay contains a shallow porch with leaf doors, a rounded corner (in sintered brick), an undulating natural stone corner and a concrete lintel. The predominantly flat rear façade is divided into three by two indentations, with on the ground floor a single-storey flat-roofed extension. The central section contains twice two window axes beside two adjacent axes with stairwell. The corner sections are separated by an indented façade with composite window. The corner sections contain two window axes adjoining the adjoining buildings, a stairwell axis.

Most window axes contain three-light frames with two panes. With the exception of the lower windows they are divided as 2x3-pane windows. The door sections with side windows accentuate the axis with stairwell with placed at the height of each floor level, a smaller three-strip window. The front of the extensions contain four-light frames with three panes.

The interior still possesses the original stairwell with granito floor tiles and metal stair rail, provided with open half-circles and small spheres. The floor of the corridors is tiled.

Assessment

The school from 1926 is of general interest on grounds of cultural and architectural historical value as an intact and representative example of a school building in the style of the Amsterdam School. The school further has ensemble value in relation to the surrounding buildings and as a characteristic component in Plan-West of Amsterdam.