The Mayor Amstelveen: luxury living in green surroundings

Eight high-end residential buildings with very luxurious penthouses, flats and park villas surrounded by greenery. But also: a fine and harmonious transition between inside and outside, outside and inside, thanks to large and wide balconies, high windows and a finish that would not resist in Mediterranean countries. This is how Marcel van der Schalk (MVDS architecture) revitalises former KPMG office complex 'De Bovenlanden' in Amstelveen.

The story of The Mayor, as the residential building will be called after its repurposing, begins back in 1986, when Marcel van der Schalk (then on behalf of Alberts & van Huut) was allowed to develop and design the KPMG building on Burgemeester Rijnderslaan, working closely with KPMG and a property developer. When the lease expires after 20 years, KPMG decides to move to a new and larger head office, built 600 metres away and also designed by MVDS. The move proves to be an eyesore for many. Owner CRI cannot get rid of the immense 50,000 sq m building and years of vacancy follow. "Back in 2011, together with various parties, I looked at how the building could be given a new purpose as a hotel, care boulevard or student housing, but all plans fell through in desk drawers," Van der Schalk says. "Partly because of the image of 'shame and disgrace' that the building carried as a result of extensive procedures and media attention. To get rid of this 'stain', I explored numerous transformation options with my team, until in 2015 CRI commissioned a radical redevelopment into a residential building, in an unrecognisable style and with a luxury look and feel."

Friendly-looking building

MVDS's view is that in this repurposing, the building design should not be changed a little, but completely. After all, you would otherwise mismake the original design. "Partly for this reason, the old colossus has been divided into eight smaller buildings," says Van der Schalk. "To make this possible, the necks and connections were demolished in all the buildings. A huge structural intervention, which I only dared to undertake in coordination with structural engineer Pieters Bouwtechniek, with whom I also developed the original building in the 1980s. After all, stability had to be restored in a different way." A special design element according to him is also the additional floor on the roof. "Thanks to the high quality value, high ceilings and maximum transparency of this floor, combined with large balconies around the building and a finish in Mediterranean stucco, the organic style of yesteryear gives way to a rectilinear and friendly-looking building. When I presented the plan to CRI, at first they thought I was showing a reference project! The response was hugely positive."

After going through the licensing procedure, CRI sold the complete licensed plan in July 2017 to property developer M.J. de Nijs, which is now in a construction consortium with UBA to take care of the complete realisation of The Mayor. "All praise to De Nijs, which took up this challenge at this time ánd kept the great design lines," said Van der Schalk. "It will soon be inconceivable that work was ever done in this building. Moreover, the adjacent A9 will soon be less visible, adding even more quality to the plan."

Quality green residential area

MVDS was also commissioned by the municipality to contribute to the area around The Mayor. For instance, the A9 will soon be deepened and provided with a canopy with a green and watery park, a pond, footpaths and a cycle path: the Meanderpark. "We are also developing the area on the opposite side, with the ultimate goal of a quality green residential area with international allure. The Mayor has proved to be the ultimate starting point for this."