Architecture Professor Wins Top Design Prize in Holland

An Amsterdam hotel designed by Wiel Arets—professor and former dean of Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture—was awarded the “The Best Dutch Building of the Year” by the country’s leading professional association for architects.

The 240-room hotel, located in Amsterdam’s Zuidas District—a business area nicknamed “the financial mile”—was commissioned by Dutch hospitality group Van der Valk, the largest of its kind in the country. Measuring in at 26,000 square meters, the 55-meter-tall building is situated on a triangular site, sandwiched between a highway and a group of high-rises. Its glass walls and sharp-angled shape, elevated by five stories of parking, allow views in every direction. It was completed in 2020.

Arets’s firm, Wiel Arets Architects (WAA), received the 2021 award from BNA, the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects, which is the sole professional association in Holland. The prize is considered the premier architecture award in the Netherlands. 

Photo: Van der Valk Hotel (courtesy of WAA)