Lloyd Hotel is a hotel housed in a historic building in the

Eastern Docklands The Eastern Docklands ( nl, Oostelijk Havengebied) is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands, located between the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ and the Nieuwe Vaart in the Boroughs of Amsterdam, borough of Amsterdam-Oost. The harbor area was constructed 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 ...

, commissioned by the Royal Holland Lloyd (

Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd or (, Dutch for 'royal') is an honorary title given to certain companies and non-profit organisations in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Belgium, by the monarchs of each country. It was first introduced by Louis Bonaparte in 1807, then Ki ...

). Founded as a hotel, it initially housed travelling immigrants. Later, it was used as a detention centre and was also home to artists' studios. It is an official national monument of the Netherlands.

History

The building was established in 1918 in the eclectic style, designed by architect

Evert Breman Evert Breman (28 April 1859, Zwolle - 24 October 1926, Amsterdam) was a Dutch architect in the Renaissance Revival style. Biography He was one of six children born to Willem Fredrik Breman (1829-1875), owner of a carpentry and blacksmithing shop ...

, 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 The expression 'Eastern European Jewry' has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Easte ...

. 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the building was used as detention centre. After the war it continued to function as an adult prison, and later became a juvenile detention centre in 1963. By 1989 the detention center building had fallen into neglect. It was then served as studio space for artists from the former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. In 1996, a competition was held to decide what the building would best be used for. The curator Suzanne Oxenaar and art historian Otto Nan presented a design for a hotel and "cultural embassy" of culture in Amsterdam. Their plan was developed in sketches by the architect firm

MVRDV MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries. History Maas and Van Rijs worked at OMA, De Vr ...

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.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Hotels in Amsterdam Prisons in the Netherlands Hotel buildings completed in 1921 Rijksmonuments in Amsterdam Amsterdam-Oost 1921 establishments in the Netherlands