City Hall and Library, The Hague

[Piet Meijs]

When Rijk was partner at Richard Meier & Partners Architects (http://www.richardmeier.com) he was the project architect for the City Hall in the Hague.

Rijk always stayed in touch with the people maintaining, renovating and updating the building to help them with keeping the integrity of the design of the building while adding or changing parts of the building.

Last month we heard that there was a problem with the accessibility of the escape stair behind the Hulshoff store. Someone was able to climb into the staircase from the outside and walk al the way up.

The city came up with a solution where they would close the entire bottom part of the stair.

Luckily we were allowed to propose an alternative.

Here are a few images of what we proposed.

[P.Roegiers]

We proposed different sorts of designs for the solution of this problem.

The first option are glass panels that function like a box around the staircase so that the possibility to climb from the first to the second level is eliminated. These panels should be attached to the floors and are without mullions. This could be a problem for the attachment and the weight of the glass.

The second option are white aluminum window frames for the glass. These profiles are also used in the building and solves the problem for transferring the weight and the attachment to the floors.

The third option is the same as the second, only this one is with corner mullions.

I would like to mention that all of these options are designed on the Richard Meier grid and have a connection with the dimensions of the white panels.

[Piet Meijs]

The third framed solution was everyones favorite.

Ideally we would use steel, load bearing, frames instead of aluminum. That way we don't need a secondary support structure.

We have used a similar detail in the climate facade of the Hydron building, albeit on a much bigger scale.

We basically attached glazing profiles to full core steel beams. That way the glazing structure and load bearing structure were combined.

[Piet Meijs]

I forgot to mention that behind the wall there is a door that prevents people from walking up. That door has always been there.

The person that walked up the stair a while ago climbed from landing to landing.

To avoid that from happening again we proposed to close of the stair as shown in the images and doing so preventing from people climbing from the first landing to the next one.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

Next year Richard Meier's City hall and Library is already 15 years old. The building ages very well, and does not feel dated at all.

In the last year we have done several studies to update offices. The biggest one was to relocate the Mayor and Aldermen. After looking at a number of alternatives, a grouping over several floors around the "urban window" seemed the most promising.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

We are currently very busy again with the City Hall and Library in the Hague. The NRC newspaper (the Dutch New York Times) wants to move from the edge of Rotterdam to the center of the Hague, and there is no better place than the Central Library.

However, since the building is fully occupied, this idea has major consequences for the Library as well as the City Hall. Our task is to get to a solution where all parties involved are satisfied, and the integrity of the Richard Meier design survives.

[Stanleys]

I like the style of this chair such a good design, you can really have a privacy and you can focus on what your doing. It's good also in all types of interview between boss.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

These chairs really absorb the sound. There is no way you can hear what is said unless you are in-between the chairs. We have one client that wants them in leather, but the acoustics is going to be much worse. Maybe if we use perforated leather.....

[omprakashkalal]

Nice images Thank You for Posting !!!!!!!!!!!!