Bank becomes Amsterdam’s city archives

Since 2007, Amsterdam?s city archives have been housed in the former headquarters of the ABN/AMRO Bank on Vijzelstraat. This building was built in 1926, to a design by the architect K.P.C. de Bazel, for the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij.

With its large-scale, closed plinths and introverted character, the building did not have a suitable aura for the city archives. Considerable attention was therefore given to improving this aura when the building was adapted and reorganized. The niches on either side of the entrances in the richly decorated façade have been provided with glass, as a result of which passers-by can get an impression of what goes on inside the atrium. This atrium, which is directly accessible from Vijzelstraat via two staircases, was cleared as part of the building?s makeover. Dividing walls, partitions and lowered ceilings, which had been installed over the years, have been removed, as a result of which the floor plan, which is organized around two glazed light courts, once again has its original clarity.

With the restoration of the light courts to their original state, daylighting in the building has improved. A bookshop, café, reading rooms and a ?repro shop? are situated on the ground floor. On the second and third floors, in the restored period rooms and in the boardrooms and conference rooms with original furniture by De Bazel, something of the bank building’s original atmosphere can still be experienced. Most of the archives are on the top four floors. What is unique is that in the former basement bank vaults, which have been transformed into a ‘treasury’ by the restoration architect Maarten Fritz, even the most valuable records can be shown to the public, thanks to the extreme security. (ARCAM)