A look inside OB42-46
Former glory uncovered
1. The hallway
Walking into the hallway of the monumental Administration building feels a bit sad. Sure, the marble floor is shiny, but the walls are grey and dirty and there are makeshift pipes, control boxes, and outlets everywhere.
But all of that will change, promises René Bosscher, who’s advising on the renovation of the monumental building. ‘It’s all out in the open now, but we’ll make everything look as neat as we can.’
2. The front parlour
The front parlour has one of the best preserved interiors in the city. But because the six monumental paintings are currently being restored elsewhere, that’s not particularly apparent.
Using the light on his phone, Bosscher points out the grisaille painting over the door. The monochrome work is meant to look like it’s made of marble. ‘The figure in the middle is governor Willem Alting. He oversaw Jacob Versteege, the man who had this house built in 1791.’ On the left and right side of the painting, there are two little angels, also known as putti. ‘You can see they’re both sitting on cannons, which is a reference to the Dutch East India Company, and one of them is holding an orange tree’, says Bosscher.
That’s interesting, because the orange tree signifies a declaration of loyalty to the royal house. ‘But Versteege wasn’t a royalist at all. In fact, when the French showed up a few years later, he joined the patriots!’
The paint has been carefully removed from the wall in several places to reveal the various layers applied over the years, in an effort to determine the original colours. ‘We found all these purple and gold elements. It’s really cool. We’re going to restore it all.’
3. The back parlour
The back parlour, which is separated from the front room by sliding doors, also has large paintings. They were in a better condition than the ones in front, and they’re being protected by large plywood sheets during the renovation.
‘There used to be a little curtain here’, Bosscher says, pointing to the glass sliding doors leading to the sun room. ‘I understand the need for privacy, but it also makes the rooms feel very separate and closed off.’
This will be changed during the renovation, although he isn’t sure how yet. ‘The architect is still working on it. But we want to make sure these doors can be opened to facilitate interaction. We need a bit more life in this building.’
4. The sun room
Even now, the sun room between the second parlour and the meeting room almost feels like outside, but once, the entire roof of the room was made of glass. ‘Back then, we brought in a lot of exotic plants, so it’s entirely possible they had palm trees in here.’
The glass roof will be replaced, says Bosscher, because the current one reflects a lot of light. ‘Board president Jouke de Vries complained about it a few times, because his room is upstairs and across from here.’
The paint has been scratched off the walls here, too. ‘The pink you see is the first layer. The room was blue for a while and green at the start of the twentieth century. But here we can see the original purple and gold leaf again.’
5. The meeting room
The large meeting room will not be renovated this time. The once soulless space was returned to its former glory back in 2016. ‘We removed the air ducts because they had asbestos in them and replaced the wall coverings. We also restored the original flooring’, Bosscher says. The once boring room was redone in dark green and bronze tones, maroon wall coverings, and a lot of gold leaf – all in the style of Louis XVI. The colours match wonderfully with the pastoral paintings over the mantelpiece and the doors.
However, the room is only one hundred years old. In 1904-1905, the building, which was then the official residence for the King’s Commissioner, was renovated to be more representative and receive larger parties. A banquet room was added, matching the rest of the building’s lush style.
6. The carriage entrance
At first glance, this room looks like a standard sitting room. There are large windows that look out over the street and a marble fireplace. But up until 1904, this was where people entered the building from the carriage entrance. If you take a good look at the floor and the panelling, you can spot where the baseboards are hiding a former wall. There are also traces of a set of stairs, which people had to ascend to get inside the building. ‘There are probably still cobbles under the floorboards’, says Bosscher.
But the stairs were narrow and difficult to climb, so people stopped using them. It was removed during the renovation of 1904, and the space was turned into a sitting room.
7. The reception hall
The Keeshond – a Dutch dog breed – featured on the medallion behind the reception desk in the hall is probably the building’s most famous ornament. While the orange tree in the front room is a symbol for the royalists, the dog is the patriots’ symbol. But, Bosscher points out, there’s an orange tree on the other side of the medallion, and supposedly, the medallion could at one point be twisted around. ‘Opportunism, perhaps? Maybe they were trying to say that everyone was welcome. Or perhaps they covered up the dog when the royals stopped by. At any rate, the mechanism is stuck now.’
The reception hall hides more interesting elements. There’s the beautiful door, for example, which was discovered to originate from one of the old parlours and installed here during the 1904 renovation. ‘You see the cuttings here that create depth?’
It’s so detailed that the violin and mandolin even have snares. Most of them have been painted over, but everything will be restored using fishing wire. ‘It keeps the cost low and doesn’t take a lot of time, but has great results.’
8. OB42 – The ground floor
Oude Boteringestraat 42, which once housed the Confucius Institute, is even older than the neighbouring building. Here, you can find solid wooden floor beams dating back to the sixteenth century. Along the wall, there are remnants of a stone arch, which probably means there used to be a fireplace there. ‘You can’t burn fires on a wooden floor, obviously.’
This used to be a reception area, says Bosscher. The walls still show the remainder of some dark brown paint, with a leaf pattern painted on it in black. ‘This kind of thing was common in the late eighteenth century. Very different from what they did next door, but that doesn’t make it any less stylish.’
The room was probably quite dark, he thinks, because the building extends pretty far to the back. This was cheaper, since street-side land was more expensive. The rooms didn’t get much light, and yet everything was painted in browns and blacks. ‘I think it’s incredibly beautiful, though.’
After the renovation, the paintings will be hidden behind wall panels. ‘It’s up to the next generation to decide what to do with them.’ Openings will be created in the wall that separates this building from Oude Boteringestraat 44, to create more openness and transparency.
9. OB42 – The first floor
A giant room stretches from the windows on the street side all the way to the back of the building. ‘Have you noticed anything else, though?’ Bosscher asks. ‘The ceilings are very low.’
He is correct. On OB42’s top floor, which will house the communication department’s offices after the renovation, was once used to store merchandise. ‘The ground floor was for trading and also had living quarters. The top floor was used to store fabrics or grain.’ Storage doesn’t require high ceilings..
10. OB44 – The back room
The room, which used to be the rector magnificus’ office, is simple, painted white. There are no fancy ornaments like on the ground floor. Yet this room dates back to 1791 and upon closer inspection, the plaster ornaments on the ceiling can be discerned. ‘Every time someone new came into office, they spruced up the place by adding another layer of white paint.’ The ornaments have been completely painted over, ‘so we’re going to free them’, says Bosscher. ‘If you look closely, you can see the irregularities are more putti in the style of Louis XIV, holding ornaments related to fertility.’
The ornaments were probably taken from another house when this property was first built, Since the rest of it is decorated in the style of Louis XVI. ‘They just added some bows and medallions to it.’
The floor is made up of long, single beams. ‘Look at this, though. They’re not resting on the ground floor’s ceiling beams, but on these little beams a little higher up. It made things quieter, less noisy. And the ceiling won’t collapse if people up here are dancing and jumping up and down.’
11. OB44 – The attic
The attic has ‘one of the most beautiful treasures of the whole renovation’, says Bosscher. When the builders removed the asbestos ceiling tiles, they revealed the original, late mediaeval roof structure.
‘We changed the entire schedule when we found it’, says Bosscher. ‘We’ll add roof insulation on the outside and paint the ceiling white, leaving the roof structure in its original colours. It will allow people to see the whole thing when they’re working here.’
The floor is also of historical significance. It’s not as old as the roof, but lines on the floor show that the attic was once divided into many little rooms, just big enough for a bed, a chair, and a closet. ‘These were probably the servants’ quarters. I imagine there was a bell system as well, so people downstairs could call on the servants if they needed anything’, says Bosscher.
The room at the end of the attic is larger, and windowless. It was probably the laundry room, where they wrung out the laundry and hung it to dry, Bosscher thinks.
12. OB46
‘This is the saddest building of the three’, says Bosscher. Nothing here dates back to before. ‘Unless you like the 1960s and 70s.’
The original building dates back to the mid-eighteenth century, but nearly everything that could be taken out has been destroyed, including the building’s façade. ‘You might think it was made this way, but they took some of the historic ornaments and put them on a new building. They also emulated the historical style of other buildings to make passers-by think it was genuinely old.’