Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy
The Lloyd Hotel is situated on the water front in the heart of Amsterdam’s Oostelijk Havengebied (Eastern Docklands Area). This listed national monument from 1921, which was built as a hotel for migrants, has been converted by MVRDV architects and reopened in 2004. All 117 rooms differ in size and interior. Over 50 Dutch designers contributed to the interior. The Cultural Embassy, which is an intrinsic part of the hotel, makes guests from abroad acquainted with Dutch culture and takes care that a visit to Lloyd Hotel is never twice the same.

Concept
The initiators are Suzanne Oxenaar (Artistic Director) and Otto Nan (General Director). In realising Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy they let themselves be guided by the thought that it had to be a hotel they themselves would love to stay in. An easily accessible place for everyone, from residents of the area to artists and businessmen. A place where you feel you are in Amsterdam, where you can meet local people, eat local food of the season and get in touch with activities and expositions based on what is going on in the city.

Architect and Designers
In order to enable the building to be used once again for its original purpose as a hotel, the building needed major renovation. The architectural agency MVRDV was commissioned to realise the design. One to five star rooms are connected to the main hall at the centre of the building, where there is an exciting interplay between communal and private spaces. The interior design is a collaborative effort of, among others, Claudy Jongstra, Atelier van Lieshout, Christoph Seyferth, Ineke Hans, and Richard Hutten (see Restaurant).

Cultural Embassy
In our fast-changing world, actual physical meetings are becoming ever rarer and shorter, while we have an increasing desire for personal contact. Lloyd Hotel offers through its Cultural Embassy a helping hand in making guests use their limited time as effectively as possible. Personal advise, theatre tickets or an informal meeting with a kindred spirit: the Cultural Embassy has a complete package of services available.
In the public spaces at the heart of the building, the Cultural Embassy organises exhibitions, presentations, lectures, screenings and concerts. Each Monday evening an informal programme takes place in the restaurant: Lloyd Time on Mondays.

The Lloyd Hotel for everyone’s budget
The room rates range from € 110 - € 500. The difference in price is linked to the difference in surface area. Needless to say our service policy is the same regardless of the room type. All our rooms are equipped with an internet connection and room service is available 24 hours. We also offer, free of charge satellite television. The 1 star rooms have a bathroom facility located in the hall with bathrobes for our guests.

For more information and reservations for rooms: www.lloydhotel.com

Lloyd Hotel Restaurant: classical European cuisine and good ingredients
Eating and drinking at the Lloyd Hotel is all about good ingredients and straightforward methods of preparation. The basic idea is that a quality tomato is so delicious that it needs nothing extra to do justice to the taste and smell of it. We work with local suppliers who are sincere about the content of their products. We know them and their businesses well. After all, it starts with the love and care with which someone raises pigs or grows lettuce. We work with upmarket suppliers and make our own cakes, jams and mayonnaise. Everything is made after traditional recepies.
The menu mainly consists of French and Italian cuisine, with other European dishes also available. From 5pm an extensive range of pinchos are on offer directly from the bar.

Shop and bar by Richard Hutten
Next to architects MVRDV, a number of designers have played an important role in the development of Lloyd Hotel. One of them is Richard Hutten. His design for the new bar in the public space fits well in the architectural space created by MVRDV. Hutten created a miraculous combination of bar/ shop and food display, in which the bar with Lloyd Lamp serves as lighting for the restaurant. This is a helicopter-like lamp which can vary in height, length and intensity. The meters high wall cabinet serves as shop. This shop is a mix of night shop and a design shop, with preserves, chutneys and muesli for sale. All products are homemade by Lloyd Hotel, using the best ingredients, of the season and without artificial additions. Also for sale are products we developed together with Dutch designers, a selection of special design- and travel books and socks from Hungary.

Reservations
Please call for a reservation on 020-561 36 77.
Restaurant Snel is open every day, from 7am until 1am, and has a large south-facing terrace for eating outside.

For more information and reservations for the restaurant: www.lloydhotel.com

Note to editors: for further information, EPKs, requests for interviews and/or guided tours, please contact Renate Schepen, tel: (+31) (0)20- 561 36 08, mail: r.schepen@lloydhotel.com

History

Every stone has its story
Lloyd’s continuing story began in 1921, when a hotel for migrants was opened along the Oostelijke Handelskade. Its architect was Evert Breman, who was commissioned by the Royal Dutch Lloyd, the foremost shipping company in the busy eastern harbour area. The Lloyd Hotel was designed to cope with 900 people at a time. The ground floor, with its high ceilings, housed a dining room that could seat 350 guests. In addition there was a shop and a large residents’ lounge.
Adjoining was a kosher kitchen, and a room to accommodate 52 Jewish guests. There were separate dormitories for men and women, in the side wing there were family quarters, and there was even a small sick bay with a modest number of beds.
Between 1921 and 1923, an extension was added to the east side of the Lloyd Hotel for the purposes of decontamination; only the east wing still exists. This has now been restored and was turned into artists’ studios and an art gallery café.
All travellers used to have to enter the hotel by the decontamination building, and if they were declared healthy they were allowed to cross into the hotel via an underground corridor.
During World War II, after the February Strike of 1941, the Germans used the Lloyd Hotel as a remand prison. After the war the building continued to be used for this purpose, first as a detention centre for Dutch collaborators with the occupiers, and between 1964 and 1989 it was used as a prison for young offenders. The interior of the building was originally well cared for, but its long period as a prison left its marks. Until 2001 it had a social function as a place for artists to live and work.

Book
In November 2004, publishing house Bas Lubberhuizen published a book by Annette Lubbers on the history of the Lloyd Hotel (in Dutch).
The cost is € 29,50. The book is for sale in the Lloyd Hotel. For further information please contact
Wieneke ’t Hoen. t: +31 (0) 20- 6184132

Documentary
31 January 2005 a Documentary was shown about the Lloyd Hotel on the Dutch National Television.
The documentary was made by Micaele van Rijckevorsel (dir) en Jeroen Visser (prod)
Lloyd Hotel, Portret van een gebouw

The Oostelijk Havengebied (the Eastern Harbour)

A new hotel in a new part of town
Living in Amsterdam, yet still having a sense of being in the countryside, surrounded by water, seagulls, boats and overwhelming cloudscapes.
It is no wonder that the Oostelijk Havengebied is currently a very popular choice for many Amsterdam residents as well as for newcomers. There are several landmarks that stand out because of their size and shape: enormous ‘super blocks’ or living quarters such as Piraeus (Hans Kollhoff/Christian Rapp) on the KNSM-island, Hoop, Liefde en Fortuin (Rudy Uytenhaak) on the Rietlanden island, and De Walvis (Frits van Dongen/Architecten Cie) on Sporenburg.

The official name for the four collective peninsulas of Java, KNSM and Borneo islands, and Sporenburg, is the Oostelijk Havengebied, or Eastern Harbour Area, but the locals tend to call it ‘Nieuw Oost’, New East. And with cause, because clearly this part of town has turned a page and is starting a new chapter.

The Oostelijk Havengebied was constructed between 1876 and 1927, because the IJ river, which is the city’s oldest harbour, was no longer accessible to large ships when Amsterdam’s Central Station was built. To enable the quays to reach the greatest possible length, four small elongated ‘islands’ were created, which became the heart of the Amsterdam port. Tragically, this area too lost its function after 1950: the harbours were too small and too shallow for the ever larger ships which came in with the increase in bulk and container shipping.

New harbours were constructed to the West of Amsterdam, after which the Oostelijk Havengebied went into decline.
Until around 1990 this was a desolate, deserted part of the city. To what use can you put an area that consists of 140 acres of land and 160 acres of water?
City planners looked at this conundrum and came up with a bold plan for new, extremely densely populated housing developments: 120 homes per acre.
At the same time it was their ambition to create neighbourhoods of exceptionally high architectural quality.
In a very short space of time more than eight thousand homes were built on and around the islands by innovative architects: some established names, some new cutting edge companies.
The development of the Oostelijk Havengebied is internationally renowned for its unique concept. Architects from the four corners of the world come to Amsterdam to see how the city has realised this high density concept.

The large number of homes per acre can be compared with the town’s 19th-century areas such as de Pijp in Amsterdam. This high density was possible only because the water fulfils the same need for visual space as the green parks do. Another solution — characteristic of Amsterdam — was
to build houses that that back on to each other, rather than sit next to each other.
The houses on the Sporenburg and Borneo islands were built to have roof terraces rather than gardens. All in all, the architects and town planners pulled off an extremely difficult feat. More than that: they have fashioned the harbour area in such a harmonious and logical way that it looks as if it was always meant to be a residential area.

Architecture, Design and Art
Upon entering the Lloyd Hotel, the first thing you notice are the huge open spaces that reach from the basement to the roof.

Scattered throughout the building, which was designed by Evert Breman, are a number of historical features, such as a small house that used to be inhabited by the a ship’s steward and his family, a tiled wall, a vaulted ceiling, wooden box-offices where new guests would sign in, and stained glass windows with images of ships. New elements have been added to this collection.
Most rooms have special bathroom units, but also foldaway beds. Some rooms have alcoves and dividing screens in the shape of a bathroom. Dutch designers and artists such as Bureau Lakenvelder and artist Joep van Lieshout were approached to enhance the architectural space by designing bathrooms to measure, and as a result almost all rooms are different.

The hotel was rebuilt by Rotterdam architects MVRDV, who are known among other things for their Holland Pavilion at the World Expo 2000 and the Silo Dam complex in Amsterdam inspired by stacked containers.
The brief that MVRDV were given was to get away from the ‘loaded’ history of the damaged building by accentuating spaciousness and inventiveness. The objective was to view the rooms not just as a place to sleep, but also as a space for living, where you could work, or spend peaceful time reading a book.
Just like farms used to have one stylishly decorated room for ‘Sunday best’, the Lloyd Hotel wants to be that room for the Netherlands. Designers and artists were approached to work on the interior decoration.

For a complete list of Designers and artists involved in the Lloyd Hotel, please visit our section artists and designers

Restaurant

Restaurant Snel: Good food is a joy and enjoying food is good for your health
Eating and drinking at the Lloyd Hotel is all about good ingredients and straightforward methods of preparation. We believe good-quality ingredients are best prepared with a minimum of fuss, or simply served as they are. We believe a tasty tomato shouldn’t be tampered with. They all take pleasure in their work: we think it is essential for good results that animals are reared lovingly and crops are grown with care. Getting ingredients into the kitchen fast is very important: freshness is key. A head of lettuce, for instance, will come directly from local fields into our kitchen, where it is carefully washed and dressed with simple vinaigrette.

Good classical European cuisine ingredients
With good fresh ingredients the supplier is the most important for the best results. We work with local suppliers who take pride in their butter, meat and eggs. We know them personally and have confidence in their approach to growing food for our kitchen. The menu for the restaurant is based on classical European cuisine with the importance lying on French and Italian cuisine. Obviously influences from different parts of Europe are incorporated in our cooking. We believe however that what belongs together should be served and cooked together.

In restaurant Snel a mixed clientele of hotel guests, local customers, artists and business people ensures a dynamic, lively atmosphere. Snel offers an extensive menu — and we don’t turn our back on fried items. Some say chips are bad for you, but there’s nothing wrong with an occasional helping of good-quality chips! They taste great and help to keep you healthy.

We have asked people what they like to eat on a night out, and built our menu according to their preferences. You can pick different items from the menu and combine them in all sorts of ways, ensuring that you can always eat exactly what you wish, and in your preferred order.

Reservations
Please call for a reservation on 020-561 36 77. For parties of eight or more people, we will help you arrange a group menu.
Snel is open every day, from 7am until 1am, and has a large south-facing terrace for eating outside.

The initiators behind the Lloyd Hotel

Four specialists with no previous hotel experience
In 1996 Amsterdam’s City Council initiated a competition to find a designation for the rapidly crumbling Lloyd Hotel building. The Council was keen to turn the building into a hotel once again, but would also like it to fulfil a local need for the community, preferably a cultural one. Oxenaar and Nan submitted a plan to turn it into a hotel cum cultural embassy. Out of the plans submitted by the twelve teams that took part in the competition, theirs was chosen. Liesbeth Mijnlieff and Gerrit Groen were delighted to join in the adventure.

Gerrit Groen
Is a lawyer and a tax specialist and also teaches at Amsterdam University. As the chairman of the Board of the Amsterdam Artists Initiative W139 he has an intimate knowledge of the latest developments in the art world. Groen and Mijnlieff met in the kitchen at Café Cox.
Groen is external advisor to the Lloyd Hotel. Groen said, on ‘his’ Lloyd Hotel: “The Lloyd Hotel is open day and night: hopefully that in itself will make it a lively place that will add to the international metropolitan atmosphere of Amsterdam.’

Liesbeth Mijnlieff
Was introduced to French cuisine by her father very early on in her life. After studying medicine she attended the Cordon Bleu cookery school in Paris. In the nineties she launched the kitchens of Café Kapitein Zeppos and Café Cox, among others. She set up her own dream restaurant, Mijnlieff, and co-owned café restaurant Amsterdam and the fish restaurant Werkendam. In between times she gave cookery lessons, and she is currently writing a cookery book to be published on DVD. At the Lloyd Hotel, Mijnlieff’s watchful eye oversees both the fast and slow restaurant. Mijnlieff, on ‘her’ Lloyd Hotel: “In the Lloyd Hotel you can get a snack or a sumptuous meal at any time of the day or night, and key concepts such as ‘quality produce’, ‘simple’ and ‘like your grandmother used to make it’ characterize the kitchen, and make all the difference on your plate.”

Otto Nan
Studied Art History and was co-organiser of parties and exhibitions in the Amsterdam arts and clubbing scenes in the nineties. Among them was the ‘cultural theme park’ Vrieshuis Amerika, where an entire village was built in the great hall on the third floor, for staging art exhibitions as well as underground raves. A self-taught financial whiz kid he designed the business plan for the Lloyd Hotel. In his capacity of General Manager he is responsible for the daily running of the Hotel. Nan on ‘his’ Lloyd Hotel: “Luxury is our standard, economy is an option.”

Suzanne Oxenaar
In her capacity of advisor to the Praktijkbureau of the Mondriaan Foundation (SKOR) she organised large scale art commissions for public spaces. In addition, she organised exhibitions such as BRAIN (Gorinchem, NL, 1992) , EXCHANGE/ MOSKOU (Moscow, 1993), EXCHANGE/ DATSJA (Almere, NL, 1994-‘95) and she was co-founder of the Supper Club restaurant in Amsterdam. Currently she is curator of “The Fifth Season”, a living space for artists in residence at the psychiatric institution Willem Arntszhoeve in Den Dolder. At the Lloyd Hotel, Oxenaar is responsible, among other things, for the running of the Cultural Embassy. Oxenaar on ‘her’ Lloyd Hotel: “It is an adventure, and it should remain an adventure.”