Astoria is a Jugendstil office building at Keizersgracht 174-176 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, built in 1904-1905 as the headquarters of the Eerste Hollandsche Levensverzekerings Bank insurance company. The building, at the intersection of the Keizersgracht and Leliegracht canals, served as the international headquarters of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

for 15 years. In 2001, it gained '' rijksmonument'' (national monument) status.

Description

With six floors and a maximum height of 37 metres, the Astoria building was one of the first office towers in the Netherlands. The building was a design by H.H. Baanders and Gerrit van Arkel, two architects who designed many buildings in Amsterdam in a sobre version of Jugendstil which later came to be known as ''Nieuwe Kunst'' ("New Art"). The Astoria building has a copper-plated roof with a small tower and decorative cast-iron fencing with EHLB (for Eerste Hollandsche Levensverzekerings Bank) in gold lettering. The mosaic on the Keizersgracht facade shows a guardian angel (intended to be symbolic of the insurance company) and two other figures. In 1968-1969, the building was extended in the same style, after a design by architect C. Wegener Sleeswijk. Astoria served for 15 years as the international headquarters of

, from the founding of Greenpeace International in 1989. The building now houses various companies. The Astoria building is on the same block as the Anne Frank House.

Sources

Amsterdam Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie
(Dutch)
Astoria, Keizersgracht 174-176
(En) {{Authority control Greenpeace Rijksmonuments in Amsterdam Art Nouveau architecture in Amsterdam Office buildings completed in 1905 Headquarters in the Netherlands Art Nouveau commercial buildings 1905 establishments in the Netherlands