|
January 22, 2004
 |
An Aerial view of the Western
Gasworks, as it looks now. |
Amsterdam is converting the former Westergasfabriek
(the Western Gasworks) into a "cultural park" with
a combination of cultural and community functions. The newest
public amenity is a large park by the American landscape designer
Kathryn Gustafson, winner of an invited competition in 1997.
Her design incorporates not only grass, water and an orchard,
but also a strip of wetlands, and changes character as you
move away from the city from urban to garden to nature.
The plant closed in 1967, when the introduction of natural
gas made the process of coal gasification obsolete. Ownership
was transferred to the local district council in 1992. In
order to prevent the buildings being squatted, and to put
the compound on Amsterdam's mental map, city council allowed
them to be used as temporary cultural venues, including opera
and theater performances, car shows, photography exhibitions,
a music school and a movie theater. This sparked community
interest in the future and the potential of the site, which
had never been accessible to the public before. The transformation
of the gasworks into a cultural venue turned out to be the
key to its redevelopment.
The 50-acre site, of which 12 are the original gasworks,
contains nineteen buildings, including an immense round gas
tank. Thirteen of these, built between 1885 and 1905 in a
neo-Renaissance style, are protected landmarks; one of them
has housed the local district council since its inception
in the early nineties. The renovation, expected to be completed
within the coming two or three years, is in the hands of architect
Yske Braaksma of Braaksma & De Roos, specialized in historical
preservation.
Before decisions could be made about permanent uses and tenants
for the buildings, however, the contamination of the soil
had to be tackled. A complete cleanup would have been prohibitively
expensive, but by excluding residential uses and adding an
additional layer of soil, cost was reduced to approx. 15 million
dollars. The US Environmental Protection Agency chose the
Westergasfabriek as an exemplary case of reuse of industrial
heritage.
In 1998 the city approved approx. 6 million dollars for
development of the gasworks as a 'culture park'; a federal
grant of 2.5 million dollars was secured for the renovation
of the gastank. Local government is responsible for maintaining
the park; a newly founded private organization will lease
the venues and plan the cultural events, for the Netherlands
a novel form of cultural entrepreneurship. The buildings have
been sold to developer MAB, with the stipulations that they
be rented only to 'creative industries', and that there will
be no office development other than those associated with
the users of the buildings. These conditions will also apply
to whoever buys the buildings after renovation.
In his preface to the recent book 'Westergasfabriek Culture
Park: Transformation of a former industrial site in Amsterdam'
(NAi Publishers, 2003 by Olof Koekkebakker), chairman Niall
Kirkwood of landscape design at Harvard Graduate School of
Design called the gasworks ,,an example for other communities
and cities of how uninhabited or disused brownfield sites
can acquire new value''.
Tracy Metz
|
Video
