■■■■■I
H.P. Berlage and Th. Sanders,
winners of the competition of
designs for the Stock Exchange in
Amsterdam, mOitjSfc'Mercaturae',
2nd round, 1885. (Historisch
Topografische Atlas, Gemeentelijke
Archiefdienst Amsterdam).
There were two reasons why
Amsterdam was thinking of
building a new Stock Exchange in
the eighties. First of all the Stock
Exchange Zocher built on the Dam
in 1843 was in a very bad condition,
but above all there were plans to fill
in the Damrak in order to construct a
boulevard from Central Station
(which building had been under
construction since 1882) to the
Dam square, and Zocher1 s
Exchange formed an obstruction for
such a boulevard.
Although Damrak was partially
filled in, the grand boulevard was
not built. In 1884designs were
in vited for the new Stock Exchange
to be built on this filled in area.
The winner of the competition,
LM. Cordonnier from Lille, received
a lot of criticism, because his design
was believed tobe plagiary; it was
the split image of the town hall of
La Rochelle. This caused such
squabbling that the city council
decided in 1888 to cancel the
construction of the Exchange
completely.
Alderman Treub, however, decided
in 1897 that a new Stock Exchange
was to be built and he commis
sioned his friend H.P. Berlage to do
this.
