As promised here are the pictures I took yesterday on my first day out in weeks, to the new Amsterdam Public Library on Oosterdokseiland, a narrow isthmus of land cleverly reclaimed from the Ooosterdok, next to Centraal Station and between the Oosterdok and the Ij.
Oosterdokseisland/Centraal Station from our side of the river at the Ijveer.
It’s a nice enough building and uses the limitations of the location well, but it’s not exactly an architectural landmark. A shame and a waste: public buildings like libraries should be landmarks and these new multistory developments make Amsterdam’s skyline look increasingly like London Docklands.
The location is stunning however, and it’s beautifully equipped. There’s a licensed LaPlace restaurant on the fifth floor, from where most of the scenic pics here were taken. It’s open from 10am to 10pm – how nice is it to be able to spend a couple of hours at the library then pop upstairs for a civilised lunch or dinner looking out over the old city?
The view from the 5th floor restaurant is so panoramic it took three pictures to get it all in:
First day open and the bibliophiles are out in force on bikes:
Local band broadcasting live on Amsterdam FM in the thrird floor performance area:
What’s most important is that now there’s room to put out the huge amount of materials they’ve had in storage all this time. It’s not quite finished (the city council weren’t going to miss the 7/7/7 opening date) and there’s still quite obviously work to be done, but on the whole I think you could call the move to the new library a great success.
