A TALE OF TWO ARCHITECTURES


Tall, narrow, handsomely austere houses overlooking quiet canals are most people’s image of Amsterdam’s architecture, yet the city is also home to highly original and varied buildings at the cutting edge of modern, sustainable architecture. A weekend visit can take you from the Golden Age of the 17th century to future-proof creations such as the city’s new waterfront and IJburg residential district.


Its compact centre makes Amsterdam a perfect walking city – or boating if you catch one of the many canal tours on offer – and the elegant Pulitzer hotel, an easy stroll from Dam Square, the Stedelijk Museum, Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank’s house, is the ideal location from which to explore.


The Pulitzer is the product of a 30-year restoration programme that has united 25 buildings into a single hotel, while preserving the individual facade of each. In 1960, Peter Pulitzer, son of


Architectural Traveller | Page 50


Pulitzer Prize founder Joseph, bought 12 properties – somewhat dilapidated warehouses along Prinzengracht and once elegant townhouses on Keizergracht – and converted them into a hotel. Over the next 30 years, he acquired a further 13 buildings, which he joined to create a private courtyard garden at the heart of the hotel. The property now houses a variety of rooms and suites that mix the elegance of the original buildings with classic, contemporary and sometimes quirky interiors.


Also on Keizergracht is the Museum van Loon, an excellent starting point for a tour of Golden Age Amsterdam. Built in 1672, the first resident of the house, which has remained largely intact over the centuries, was the painter Ferdinand Bol, a student of Rembrandt. Two centuries later, in 1884, the house was purchased by descendants of Willem van Loon, who in


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