Five star hotel in former bank building

The imposing building on the corner of Van Baerlestraat / Paulus Potterstraat, which now houses the Conservatorium Hotel, was built in 1901 as the headquarters of the Rijkspostspaarbank. This bank was established by the state in 1881 in order to encourage the working class to save. When the bank’s original premises on Stadhouderskade became too small, land was purchased on Van Baerlestraat. The new bank building was built here, to a design by the then chief government architect D.E.C. Knuttel, between 1899 and 1901. Up until the Rijkspostspaarbank’s merger with the privatized Postbank, the monumental building housed the bank’s directorate. In 1985, the Sweelinck Conservatorium moved into the building. When in 2008 this music school relocated to new premises on Oosterdokseiland, the former bank building in the city’s Zuid district was given a new use as a five star hotel.

The architectural firm J. van Stigt and Meyer and Van Schooten Architects were engaged to carry out the building’s radical makeover. After it was sold to an Israeli property developer, the Italian interior designer Piero Lissoni was appointed project manager. Lissoni’s role was confined to redesigning the building’s interior, assisted by OIII Architects.

When the Sweelinck Conservatorium moved into the building, the necessary soundproofing measures hid the original interior from view. As part of the building’s conversion into a hotel, authentic features such as terrazzo floors, wood panelling, old roof trusses and tiling were reinstated or reintroduced wherever possible. In addition, the aim was to create a striking contrast between old and new elements, as can be seen in the steel and glass atrium roof built up against the original brick elevations. (ARCAM)