Wolkenkrabber (Twaalfhoog)

A tower on a square

Victorieplein is a wide, open junction in the Rivierenbuurt, where three broad avenues meet. At the head of it stands a pale brick tower of twelve floors. Its proper name is the Twaalfverdiepingenhuis, the Twelve Storey House. Everyone calls it the Wolkenkrabber, the Skyscraper.

By New York standards it is modest. For Amsterdam in 1932 it was something else. It was the first residential high-rise in the city, and the tallest home in town. Today it is a protected national monument. It is worth the walk for the odd feeling of a small piece of the 1930s skyline standing among low brick blocks.

Berlage's missing towers

The Rivierenbuurt belongs to Plan Zuid, the southern expansion of the city designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage. His plan imagined towers at key points in the neighbourhood. Only this one was ever built, and it was designed by J.F. Staal, not by Berlage.

The idea dates from 1927. It could not start straight away, because the building rules allowed only four floors and had to be changed. The first pile went into the ground on 1 July 1930. The building stands on almost nine hundred of them. A plaque in the entrance hall records the builders and the architect.

The flats were large, six rooms each, and well equipped for the time. They had an intercom, fast lifts, a refuse chute, a fridge and central heating. Staal's wife, the architect Margaret Kropholler, is credited with the refuse chute, the central bell system and the kitchen layouts. Even so, the building filled slowly. Tenants preferred the low-rise streets around it, and the rent was high enough that it was seen as a place for the very rich.

The tower was carefully restored between 2016 and 2019. Paint research found the original colour scheme under ten layers of later paint.

What to look for

Stand in the middle of Victorieplein and look at the whole front. It is symmetrical, with a wing of flats on each side. In the centre, above the entrance, a half-open stairwell and the lift tower rise above the roof. They work like a hinge that splits the facade in two. The glass of the stairwell sticks out from the wall. It was taken apart and repaired during the restoration.

The concrete frame is hidden behind light brick, so the tower looks like a brick building. Look at the balconies and windows too. The style mixes Amsterdam School, functionalism and the plainer Nieuwe Zakelijkheid. The windows pivot on a vertical hinge, so they can be cleaned from the inside.

In front of the building is a statue of Berlage by Hildo Krop, placed in 1966. He looks out across the square towards the Berlagebrug, the bridge he designed over the Amstel. Read the street names too: Vrijheidlaan, Rooseveltlaan and Churchill-laan. They show how the neighbourhood felt about the end of the war.

This is a private apartment building, so enjoy it from the square and the pavement.