Plan Documentation
Abstract
The plan documentation for the luxury city apartments in this second issue of DASH consists of a series of historic and recent, national and international projects, which we believe are representative and classical examples of the luxury apartment building.
We looked abroad for the majority of our selections. In cities such as Chicago, New York, Paris and Berlin, the erection of apartment buildings is inextricably linked with the turbulent growth of the metropolis and the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. Remarkably, this development never really took off in the Netherlands, so the country has no tradition of luxury city apartments.
Examples of the international tradition of apartment building that we have included are the Albert Hall Mansions in London and the Parisian apartment building by the Perret brothers at Avenue Wagram 119. More recent, modernist projects are Lake Point Tower in Chicago and the Torres Blancas in Madrid. Brazil has its own tradition of apartment buildings. Parque Cidade Jardim from São Paulo, which we document here, is typical of the recent developments also seen in other emerging economies: an enclave of luxury and exclusivity. Meanwhile, 40 Bond Street in New York epitomizes a contemporary combination of private luxury and hotel services.
A number of special, though relatively unknown projects were built in the Netherlands in the 1930s, in part to provide comfortable housing for returnees from the Dutch East Indies. Residential hotel Duinwyck in The Hague is a case in point.
Noteworthy are the luxury apartments built during the interwar years by the Amsterdam-based architect Warners, who not only designed them, but also developed these projects. Westhove, one of his most striking creations just off Valeriusplein in Amsterdam, is documented here for the first time.
Since the 1990s, the globalizing economy and new urban lifestyles have led to the construction of apartment buildings for new groups of city dwellers in the Netherlands. An example is Detroit in Amsterdam, which offers tenants a relatively modest set of extra services.
