Designed by the founder of OMA Rem Koolhaas for real estate developers MAB Development and OVG Real Estate, the building is expected to be the largest building in the Netherlands.
De Rotterdam is conceived as a vertical city: three interconnected mixed-use towers accommodating offices, apartments, a hotel, conference facilities, gym, shops, restaurants, and cafes.
The three towers reach 150 meters high with a gross floor area of approximately 160,000 square meter. De Rotterdam’s stacked towers are arranged in a subtly irregular cluster that refuses to resolve into a singular form and produces intriguing different views from different perspectives. Similarly, the definition of the building changes according to its multiple uses internally.
The various programs of this urban complex are organized into distinct blocks, providing both clarity and synergy. Residents and office workers alike can use the fitness facilities, restaurants, and conference rooms of the hotel. And these private users of the building have contact with the general public on the ground floor, with its waterfront cafes. The lobbies for the offices, hotel, and apartments are located in the plinth – a long elevated hall that serves as a general traffic hub for De Rotterdam’s wide variety of users.
The project began in 1997 with completion scheduled for 2013. De Rotterdam is named after one of the ships on the Holland America Line, which used to depart from the Wilhelminapier in decades past, carrying thousands of Europeans emigrating to the US.
