indense
Active Member
I thought I would share some photos showing how the Dutch handle the office park. There is, of course, a mixed bag of some good buildings and some boring crap. In that sense, I think it's the same as North America.
It seems like there is always an effort to do something creative to the design - it's not always a visual success.
Many office buildings have their own fake canals as a landscaping feature and there are plenty of bike paths. There is usually 1 level of underground parking which is often not fully enclosed and not really underground.
Buildings seem to be designed and built without having tenants secured which leads to finished buildings sitting empty and design features - like interior bridges across atriums - going unused when the building is divided up among smaller tenants.
The first pictures are from January when I was living at a hotel near the airport.
Microsoft has their own basketball court.
The next are from the office park where I work. There isn't a restaurant or a store within walking distance. Each company has their own cafeteria that serves up a selection of interesting Dutch foods.
(sorry about the colour on these - my camera was acting up.)
My office is a Frankenstein's Monster of different parts thrown together:
The next building over:
It's completely empty - not a single tenant. It's been like this since I got here 7 months ago. There is at least one more empty building in the next office park over.
The next building: Notice the blinds on the exterior of the windows.
Next is the Artemis Hotel which bills itself as a Dutch Design hotel and has pretty funky interiors.
The rear of the hotel:
Next to the Artemis is one of several IBM offices in the area:
IBM from the back:
Despite the empty building across the way, there is a new office going up. No signs indicating whether they already have a tenant or not.
And the last building in the complex seems to be from another era:
Next, we are off to Bijlmer in the East of Amsterdam - home to Ajax Stadium and a large number of office towers. It was 5:30 on the Thursday in August - so of course there wasn't a single car or office worker in sight.
Plenty of bicycle parking:
More bicycle parking:
Corporate art:
And finally, the new Bijlmer train station, stillunder construction:
There are three sets of tracks for the subway, inter-city and sprinter trains. The bus station is under-neath.
Lots of wood and glass.
As you can see, some good, some not so good. Sometimes the grass isn't as green on the other side as you thought it was.
It seems like there is always an effort to do something creative to the design - it's not always a visual success.
Many office buildings have their own fake canals as a landscaping feature and there are plenty of bike paths. There is usually 1 level of underground parking which is often not fully enclosed and not really underground.
Buildings seem to be designed and built without having tenants secured which leads to finished buildings sitting empty and design features - like interior bridges across atriums - going unused when the building is divided up among smaller tenants.
The first pictures are from January when I was living at a hotel near the airport.
Microsoft has their own basketball court.
The next are from the office park where I work. There isn't a restaurant or a store within walking distance. Each company has their own cafeteria that serves up a selection of interesting Dutch foods.
(sorry about the colour on these - my camera was acting up.)
My office is a Frankenstein's Monster of different parts thrown together:
The next building over:
It's completely empty - not a single tenant. It's been like this since I got here 7 months ago. There is at least one more empty building in the next office park over.
The next building: Notice the blinds on the exterior of the windows.
Next is the Artemis Hotel which bills itself as a Dutch Design hotel and has pretty funky interiors.
The rear of the hotel:
Next to the Artemis is one of several IBM offices in the area:
IBM from the back:
Despite the empty building across the way, there is a new office going up. No signs indicating whether they already have a tenant or not.
And the last building in the complex seems to be from another era:
Next, we are off to Bijlmer in the East of Amsterdam - home to Ajax Stadium and a large number of office towers. It was 5:30 on the Thursday in August - so of course there wasn't a single car or office worker in sight.
Plenty of bicycle parking:
More bicycle parking:
Corporate art:
And finally, the new Bijlmer train station, stillunder construction:
There are three sets of tracks for the subway, inter-city and sprinter trains. The bus station is under-neath.
Lots of wood and glass.
As you can see, some good, some not so good. Sometimes the grass isn't as green on the other side as you thought it was.