To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

Vinkzicht buildings saved for now

26 April 2008 - District Oud-West wants to demolish all but the façade of the historic Vinkzicht buildings in order to build a four star hotel with one hundred rooms. The plans have been suspended because of a request to have the buildings listed as historic monuments.

The Cuypers Association has asked the district to list the 19th Century buildings. The reason is not just the façade and the relation with the adjacent buildings, but also the typical gabled roofs and the almost unique rear elevation, visible from the Tetterode complex.

The request to have the buildings listed was sent in March, but the district says it received it only a month later, on 24 April. The plan was to inform the neighbourhood residents of the plans in April, but because of the request the process will most likely be suspended for at least twelve weeks.

Initially, the district wanted to demolish the buildings and build a large Ibis hotel. After neighbourhood, protests a new plan was presented. The façade will remain intact, but the buildings' height will be extended by 1.80 metre, which means that the roof and the rear will have to be sacrificed.

Without this extension, the building could probably accommodate only about eighty rooms. According to the developer, Vondel Hotels, the hotel would then not be profitable.

Last year, the district presented plans to attract tourists with its artists and its and industrial and craft history. Interestingly, the project book that came with the plan prominently features a photo of the rear of the Vinkzicht buildings. "But they want to demolish those Vinkzicht buildings", responds Rens den Hollander, one of the neighbourhood residents who oppose the demolition.

Den Hollander says that it is no problem that tourists come to Oud-West, but this must not go at the expense of the neighbourhood. "Of course, a city attracts tourists and that's OK, but why not create more small-scale hotels at different locations rather than one hundred rooms and four stars at a time?"

"You can count on a branch opposite the hotel opening a delftware tourist shop; that's not what the neighbourhood needs at all. Further, such a hotel will definitely cause traffic and noise nuisance, and air quality, which is problematic at this location as it is, will not improve".

Den Hollander further points out that the intended developer will end up owning four hotels in Oud-West, and will therefore have a serious position of power in the district. "That's an undesirable concentration of influential people versus the neighbourhood residents and their interests".

For now, the Monuments and Architecture Office (BMA) has to issue an advice on the request to list the Vinkzicht buildings. It is conceivable that the district will brush aside the advice. In 1999, it also disregarded an advice to submit the buildings to be listed as monuments, because it did not want to thwart previous plans to partially demolish them.

Vinkzicht website (in Dutch), tourism plan

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here