A’DAM Toren Amsterdam: Icon under construction

Every city has an iconic landmark. Berlin’s Brandenburger Tor, Paris’s Eiffel Tower or Rome’s Coliseum are all beautiful and recognizable, but these days they mostly serve as backdrops for the requisite tourist selfie. They’re also somewhat cut off from the real life of a city.

As urban dwellers, our participation in the life of these iconic structures is limited. We can’t really know them intimately—run our hands over their bones, poke around in their guts, or watch them grow. What would it have been like to see them as they were being built?

Short of traveling back in time, that’s not really possible. Or is it?

This is why I couldn’t miss out on a very special Instameet organized by the IGersAmsterdam community. To mark Dag van De Bouw (National Construction Day) on June 13, IGersAmsterdam offered 20 local Instagrammers access to the construction site of A’DAM Toren Amsterdam, the city’s newest landmark.

Rising 22 stories high, A’DAM Toren Amsterdam was the former headquarters of Shell, located along the IJ river across Amsterdam Central Station. When Shell moved to their new headquarters, the building designed by architect Arthur Staal—known as Toren Overhoeks, or ‘Diagonal Tower’, for its 45-degree angle to the river—was open for redevelopment.

Concepts were bidded out, and the choice was made: to make the tower into a creative hub, and to finally build the iconic observation deck that Amsterdam never had. Born of a four-way partnership among creative individuals, the vision was brought to life by architects Claus & Van Wageningen. Renovation of the tower began in July 2014 and is scheduled for completion in April 2016.

The plans for A’DAM Toren sound amazing. The tower’s main draw and crowning glory, quite literally, is called The Crown. Sitting on top of the tower, this structure will contain the Lookout: a diagonal viewing deck on the 2oth and 21st floors, with a 360-degree panorama of Amsterdam.

There is nothing like this in Amsterdam. You can see clear across the city to Schiphol airport, even on a characteristically cloudy day. For convenience, nothing beats the accessibility to Central Station which is a five-minute (free!) ferry ride away.

The Crown took nine months to develop and a mindblowing three days to install. Three days! That’s first world construction for you.

What was fantastic about this Instameet was that we got to climb even higher than the Lookout—right up on the rooftop of the A’DAM Toren itself, which isn’t open to the general public, not even for National Construction Day.

The Lookout will also contain a bar and restaurant on the 20th floor, a revolving restaurant on the 19th floor, and…. a giant swing on the very edge of the roof. Say whaaat?! I have a mild-to-moderate fear of heights, but I. Cannot. Wait.

What’s better than going to a super cool, limited-access location? Going there with a bunch of fun, friendly and talented photographers! No need for selfies here—it was so easy to just make friends and hand them my camera or phone. I think the last time I had so many nice pictures taken of myself was at my wedding.

In the company of fellow ‘grammers, nobody twice about lying down on steel beams or taking a picture of your feet dangling off the side of the building. Who says its lonely at the top?

But wait, there’s more to A’DAM Toren Amsterdam than the view. Come and see, after the jump.

A 110-room boutique hotel will take up A’DAM Toren’s first four floors. We got to check out some of the rooms, which are still under construction. A staycation here is already on my wishlist!

We also got to walk around the 18th floor, which will become A’DAM & Co., a members’ club that will be designed like a luxury loft residence, and can be hired out for weddings and special events. The view will be stunning, if these six-meter high glass windows are any indication.

Fun facts: the windows of A’DAM Toren consist of some of the biggest single pieces of glass that are available for purchase in the Netherlands. They were installed at a rate of 80 windows per day. Imagine that!

The rest of the building will contain an underground bar, club and event space,a 24-hour lobby on the ground floor, and office spaces for creative businesses in the music, gaming, digital and design industries.

Most of it looks like this now, but soon these empty spaces will be buzzing with creativity. I can’t wait to return and see how this building will have totally transformed.

What do you think? Amazing, right? Check out the hashtags #IGAdamToren on Instagram if you’d like to see all the cool photos we took at A’DAM Toren Amsterdam!

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