Opening 2004 Number of rooms 117 | Developer MVRDV | |
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Location Oostelijke Handelskade 34, Amsterdam, Netherlands | ||
Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy is a historic building in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam, commissioned by the Royal Holland Lloyd (KHL). It became a building to temporarily house immigrants, a prison and later was a collective building of artists' studios, but is now serving as a hotel since 2004. It is an official national monument of the Netherlands.
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History
The building was established in 1918 in the eclectic style, designed by architect Evert Breman, commissioned by the Royal Holland Lloyd (KHL). The KHL did use the hotel as advertising, to recruit clients for passengers heading to South America. When it was completed on June 1, 1921, it had cost eight times more than originally estimated, contributing to the subsequent bankruptcy of the KHL.
From 1921 to 1936 the building was used as temporary accommodation for immigrants, mostly poor Eastern European Jews. In 1936, the KHL went bankrupt and the building was purchased by the City of Amsterdam. Subsequently, from 1938 it was used as a shelter for Jewish refugees from Germany and during World War II, the building was used as prison. After the war it continued to function as an adult prison, and later became a juvenile detention center in 1963. The name "Lloyd Hotel" is named after this centre 'T Nieuwe Lloyd'.
By 1989 the detention center building had fallen into neglect. It was then served as studio space for artists from the former Yugoslavia. In 1996, a competition was held to decide what the building would best be used for. The designer Suzanne Oxenaar and historian Otto Nan presented a design for a hotel, a "cultural embassy" of culture in Amsterdam. Their plan was developed in sketches by the architect firm MVRDV and after an extensive restoration, the building has served as a hotel since 2004, placed on the monument list in 2001. The hotel has 117 rooms.
Design
Over 40 Dutch and international designers worked on the interior of Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy.