Architect Ad van der Steur stadhuis Gouda

Adrianus (Ad) van der Steur (27 September 1893,

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

– 13 December 1953,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

) was a Dutch

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and a member of a family of architects.

Life

Van der Steur studied engineering at the Technische Hogeschool Delft (Polytechnic college in Delft). After finalizing his studies in 1918 he worked for the

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

(Dutch Railways) and later was an architect with Gemeentewerken Rotterdam (Municipal works company Rotterdam). Like other architects in Dutch municipal and government service of that era, Van der Steur designed his buildings in the 1920s in a style similar to that of

Willem Marinus Dudok Willem Marinus Dudok (6 July 1884 – 6 April 1974) was a famous Dutch modernist architect. He was born in Amsterdam. He became City Architect for the town of Hilversum in 1928 where he was best known for the brick Hilversum Town Hall, comp ...

and the

Amsterdam School The Amsterdam School (Dutch: ''Amsterdamse School'') is a style of architecture that arose from 1910 through about 1930 in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam School movement is part of international Expressionist architecture, sometimes linked ...

. In the early part of this period, he designed mainly schools, such as the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt HBS (1925). After that, he designed several buildings in Rotterdam: *Quickfilter buildings for the water company, 1929 * GEB-gebouw (municipal energy company building), 1931 with J.Poot * Rijksseruminrichting (national vaccine institute), 1931 in Oud-Mathenesse *

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

, 1937 on private contract * Erasmiaans Gymnasium, 1937 in

Dijkzigt Dijkzigt is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the ...

*Central police bureau at Haagseveer, 1938 * Centraal Gebouw voor de Volksgezondheid (central building for public healthcare), 1938-1940 at Schiedamsedijk. *Ventilation buildings of the

Maastunnel The Maastunnel is a tunnel in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, connecting the banks of the Nieuwe Maas. About 75,000 motor vehicles and a large number of cyclists and pedestrians use the tunnel daily, making the Maastunnel an important part of Rott ...

, 1940 * Oogziekenhuis (eye hospital), 1942 Several of his designs are now listed on as a national monument in Rotterdam. In 1941 van der Steur, together with W.A.C.Herman de Groot and K.I.Ruige, founded his own architect company. His work was not limited to Rotterdam. He also designed the main office of IJsselmij in Zwolle (1939 - 1946); an office building for an insurance company (1951 - 1953), today the residence of the Yugoslavia Tribunaleight railway stations (1929); and one of the faculty buildings of his old school the Polytechnic University Delft (1953).

Restorations

Van der Steur was as an architect not only involved in the design of new buildings, but also in the restoration of some highly visible buildings in several cities, such as the City hall of Gouda, City hall of Middelburg and the Great or Saint Laurence Church of Rotterdam.Bruggen, Ir J.P. van ''In memoriam Ir A. van der Steur (1893-1953)'' in: Rotterdams Jaarboekje 195

(Dutch)

Family

Van der Steur was born into a family of architects, whose members sometimes are confused in relevant literature. His grandfather Adrianus van der Steur (1836 - 1899) was architect in Haarlem. His son and Ad's father, J.A.G. van der Steur (1865 - 1945) was a professor and architect in Delft. Besides Ad, his brother A.J. van der Steur (1895 - 1963) was architect and another brother J.A.G. van der Steur jr. was a civil engineer involved in the design of Stormvloedkering Hollandse IJssel in

Krimpen aan den IJssel Krimpen aan den IJssel () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in , and covers an area of of which is water. History Krimpen is first mentioned in a docum ...

Images

File:Rotterdam rochussenstraat GEB.jpg, GEB-gebouw File:Rotterdam museum boijmans gebouw.jpg, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen File:Politiepaleis Rotterdam.jpg, Central police bureau at Haagseveer File:Rotterdam charlois ventilatiegebouw.jpg, Ventilation buildings Maastunnel File:Rotterdam_oogziekenhuis.jpg, Oogziekenhuis Rotterdam

External links and footnotes

Biography in digital archive Nederlands Architectuur Instituut
(Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Steur, Adrianus van der 1893 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Dutch architects Artists from Haarlem Delft University of Technology alumni

Life

Restorations

Family

Images

See also

External links and footnotes