Rotterdam Rijnhaven and Wilhelminapier by Evert Buitendijk

About "Rotterdam Rijnhaven and Wilhelminapier"

by Evert Buitendijk

About the artwork

The Wilhelmina Pier is a high-density urban area on Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid. Administratively, it has been part of the Feijenoord district since 3 March 2010 (previously Rotterdam Centre). The elongated area is located along the Nieuwe Maas river at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge and has been characterised by high-rise buildings and modern facilities since the turn of the century. Near Wilhelminapier, the metro station Wilhelminaplein has been located since 1997. Since 2001, the new Luxor Theatre has been located on Wilhelminapier. In late 2013, De Rotterdam, designed by Rem Koolhaas, was completed. This building is 150 metres high. The Wilhelminakade, which runs the entire length of the pier, used to be a harbour quay from where many passenger ships left for America. The pier has become a symbol of 19th- and 20th-century emigration to America. The western tip is called the Queen's Head. Since 2001, the large cast-iron sculpture Lost luggage depot by Canadian historian and visual artist Jeff Wall has stood here as a symbol of the farewell emigrants took here to their "former lives."[1] Hotel New York, the former headquarters of the Holland-America Line, is one of the landmark buildings with its copper domed towers. After the departure of the HAL in 1971, a master plan for the redevelopment of the area was designed by Sir Norman Foster in 1992. He also designed the World Port Center in 2000, the first high-rise building to set the scene since then v