A New Life for Amsterdam’s ‘Olympisch Stadion’

There are many things for which a city might enjoy reknown, but demolishing an Olympic stadium doesn’t seem like a very flattering one. Yet in fact Amsterdam nearly joined the annals of dubious distinction by be being the first city in Olympic history to demolish its Olympic stadium. Through the perserverance of a few perspicacious and stubborn individuals, this fate was averted; this magnficient monument was renovated and restored to its original glory.

The story goes back to beginning the second decade of the 20th century. Amsterdam hosted the Olympics in 1928. For this event, the Dutch Olympic committee organized the building of a stadium on what was then the outskirts of the city. It commissioned architect Jan Wils, who was a protege of H.P. Berlage, the famous architectural innovator best known for his namesake “Beurs” (stock exchange) just off the Dam in the city center.

Wils created an elegant structure, very much in the “functional” style of the time, with a capacity for 34,000 spectators. Its smooth lines and brick construction made it an integral part of Berlage’s Plan Zuid, the large residential area directly adjacent to the Stadium, which Berlage, whose architectural ideas were strongly imbued by his socialist principles, designed for the new middle-class of the time. Due to its sleekness and restrained ornamentation, Amsterdam architectural historian Peter Prins calls Wils’s Olympic Stadium “the first modern stadium”.

After the ‘28 Olympics, the stadium became an important national podium and remained so until after World War II, However, already in the 1930s the structure was encountering competition with the much larger Kuip in Rotterdam. In 1937, a second concrete ring was added, raising its capacity to 64,000. The new addition, which also designed by Wils, largely, alas, obliterated its original design.

By the 1960s, with more people watching TV at home, other buildings, such as the Amsterdam RAI and the Utrecht Jaarbeurs, attracted some of events that would have taken place in the stadium, and the structure fell into oblivion. In 1978, the city announced plans to demolish the stadium and erect much-needed housing.

However, around this time, the Rijksdienst van Monumentenzorg (RDMZ), a government agency responsible for preserving Holland’s cultural heritage, embarked upon a effort to make an inventory of buildings from the period 1850 — 1940, a period which hitherto been neglected. The Olympic Stadium was seen as an important historical moment and placed on the list of official national monuments — precluding its destruction.

In 1996 a business plan was put together for the renovation of the stadium at a projected budget of 23 million guilders. In 1997 renovation commenced, and the refurbished stadium was officially inaugurated on the 13th of May at a ceremony presided by Crown Prince Willem Alexander. The stadium was restored to its original 1928 form; the outer ring was removed, as was a bicycle track around the perimeter of the field. With its freshly-cleaned brickwork and bright red metal window frames, the structure exudes a simple grandeur. It is, as historian Prins observes, ”an architectural jewel”, a welcome addition to the list of notable examples of the “Amsterdam school” building style.

Amsterdam architect Andre van Stigt was responsible for the renovation, and he went back to Wils’s original drawings for guidance. As he explains, in deciding how to breathe new life into an old structure, ”the function must follow the form”. That is to say, rather than impose one’s wishes upon an existing structure, one needs to study it closely to see what possibilities it suggests.

”Old buildings are idiosyncratic. There are always small compromises to be made,” says Van Stigt, who observes that people nonetheless love living and working in old buildings. “We find our monumental buildings beautiful,” but adds however that “we don’t *build* monuments; they become monuments because of their beauty *and* their function. An empty shell of a building has no raison d’etre”.

To reinvigorate the stadium, Stigt and his colleagues bestowed economic self-sustenance upon it by creating commercial office space under the tribunes, in the so-called “catacombs”, space which had been previously left to spiders and scattered with empty plastic beakers. In a brilliant stroke, Van Stigt opened these space in both back and front by placing a continuous wall of windows at the inside perimeter, just under the first row. The occupants of the dozens of variously-shaped commercial spaces, nearly half of whom are involved in sports-related activities, look out onto the field from their offices. Among the numerous tenants is a grand cafe — the currently very trendy Vakzuid — and a fitness club. By contributing a fixed amount each year to the stadium, the tenants subsidize, as it were, athletic activities there.

Van Stigt, who himself works out of a magnificent mansion on the Herengracht, has emerged as something of a specialist in renovating old buildings in Amsterdam. He was responsible for converting the Entrepotdok, a neighborhood of 17C warehouses in Amsterdam Oost, into very desirable living spaces. He also oversaw the renovation of the Nassau Kazerne, an old military barracks dating from the 19C, also in Oost. Yet another interesting project is the ongoing renovation of old grain silos in the Amsterdam docklands. And just recently, Van Stigt has embarked on a new project, an old ABN-AMRO bank building on the Vijzelstraat from the early part of the 20C.

Amsterdam, like many old cities, is a living entity — not a museum — and a constant process of renewal and renovation are inevitable. Recently, its inhabitants were less sensitive to its recent historical heritage than to the countless glories of the Golden Age. But that is now changing, as cities like Amsterdam discover architectural treasures in its recent industrial past. It takes the vision of people like Van Stigt to see beyond the broken windows and the cracks in the plaster.

”By finding a suitable function for an old building like the Olympic Stadium — such an important social monument with such a significant social history — you give it back to the city.”