100 years of architecture in Rotterdam
2005: Montevideo
On the Wilhelminapier, next to Hotel New York, once the
head office of the Holland-Amerika line, the highest residential building (167m)
of the Netherlands rises up. The name Montevideo emphasises the 
cosmopolitan
function this area once had for the city and the country. It also refers to a
warehouse that once stood here. This cosmopolitan feel has to return to this
district and Montevideo's neighbour, the Hotel New York, was a first step. Other
(future) neighbours are the Cruise Terminal, the Luxor Theatre and Las Palmas,
home to the Netherlands Museum of Photography. Other residential and office
towers will follow with resounding names like New Orleans, Baltimore, Havanna
and Rotterdam.
Montevideo is a design by Francien Houben one of the founders of the Delft firm Meccanoo. Houben found her inspriration in residential sky scrapers in American cities like New York. The building consists of different parts, containing different types of apartments, called loft, sky, city and water. The apartments are not single floor, but are more like multistory houses on top of each other. The complex has all kinds of modern conveniences for its owners like a swimming pool, a gym and other services. Apart from residential units the building also offers 6000mē of office space, 1900mē of shops and restaurants. In its base an Art House cinema will open its doors. It can be seen as a vertical neighbourhood.
The construction consists of concrete and steel. Concrete is used to shape the structure of the City and Lof apartments, while the steel is used for the higher Sky apartments from the 27th floor up.
Also completed in 2005:
De Witte Keizer, KCAP (Kees Christiaanse Architects & Planners),
Rotterdam
Ernst & Young, Alan Ritchie and Phillip Johnson, New York
