Gerrit A. van Arkel (April 3, 1858 in

Loenen aan de Vecht Loenen aan de Vecht (or just Loenen) is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It was the main village in the former municipality of Loenen. Since 2011 it has become part of the newly formed municipality of Stichtse Vecht. It lies about 10& ...

– July 11, 1918 in

Abcoude Abcoude () is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Since 2011 it has been part of the municipality of De Ronde Venen. Population centres The former municipality of Abcoude consisted of the villages of A ...

) 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 ...

who designed many of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

's most prominent

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

(Art Nouveau) buildings. He moved to Amsterdam in 1883 to become an architect. His designs initially mixed

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

and

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

styles but, from about 1894, he adopted a sobre version of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau). This sobre style of Jugendstil, influenced by the work of H. P. Berlage, was known as the ''Nieuwe Stijl'' ("New Style"). Van Arkel designs are characterized by the frequent use of

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

s and

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

s, as well as asymmetrically placed balconies, towers and domes. His design for the Helios building won third prize at the architectural competition of the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. Twelve of his buildings in Amsterdam were designated national monuments in 2001. The Asscher diamond factory has also been nominated for national monument status, and another 17 buildings in Amsterdam have been nominated to become municipal monuments.

Buildings

Van Arkel's Jugendstil buildings in Amsterdam include: * The Asscher diamond factory on Tolstraat (1907), where the world's largest diamond, the

Cullinan Diamond The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found,Scarratt and Shor, p. 120. weighing , discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner ...

, was cut * The Diamond Exchange on Weesperplein square (1911) * The Helios building on Spui square (1895/1896) * The Astoria office building of the Eerste Hollandsche Levensverzekerings Bank on

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

canal (1904/1905) * The office building of The Marine Insurance Company Limited on the

Rokin The Rokin is a canal and major street in the centre of Amsterdam. The street runs from Muntplein, Amsterdam, Muntplein square to Dam Square, Dam square. The Rokin canal used to run from Muntplein square to Dam Square, but in 1936, the part between ...

(1901) * The bakery of D.C. Stähle on Spuistraat (1898) Image:Bakkerij D.C Stahle Spuistraat.jpg, D.C. Stähle's bakery, Spuistraat (1898) Image:Gasthmolst1c.jpg, Gasthuismolensteeg 20 (1900) Image:Spui_helios.jpg, Helios building, Spui 15-19 (ca. 1900) Image:Damrak80.jpg, Damrak 80-81 (1904) Image:Diambeurs.jpg, Diamond Exchange (1906) Image:Diamond Cuttery Asscher.jpg, The Asscher diamond factory (1911)

Sources

Amsterdam Bureau of Monuments & Archeology

Jewish Historical Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkel, Gerrit Van 1858 births 1918 deaths Art Nouveau architects Dutch architects People from Loenen