OBA Oosterdok: The City's Living Room
Why is it significant?
In front of you rises a big pale block with deep, cut-out windows and a roof that juts out over the top floor like the peak of a cap. People drift in and out with laptops, children and bags of books. This is the OBA, the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, the city's central public library.
Key Facts
| Place | OBA Oosterdok: The City's Living Room |
|---|---|
| Address | Oosterdokskade 143, 1011 DL Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.37620, 4.90820 |
| Part of Walk | Ships, Silos and a Red Python: Modern Architecture of Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you rises a big pale block with deep, cut-out windows and a roof that juts out over the top floor like the peak of a cap. People drift in and out with laptops, children and bags of books. This is the OBA, the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, the city's central public library.
It opened on the seventh of July 2007, an easy date to remember: seven, seven, oh seven. The architect was Jo Coenen, who had been the Dutch government's chief architect, and he designed it as more than a book store. Inside there are around twenty-eight thousand square metres spread over many floors, with reading rooms, a theatre, music studios, exhibition space and long tables where students camp all day. When it opened, it was described as the largest public library in Europe.
Here is the tip that locals give each other. Take the escalators all the way to the top. Up there is a café and a terrace with one of the best free views in Amsterdam: the roofs, towers and church spires of the old city on one side, the water of the IJ on the other. No ticket, no queue, just a coffee and the whole skyline.
And the island you are standing on is new as well. The Oosterdokseiland was for a long time railway land beside the station. Around the turn of the millennium the city decided to build a new piece of town here, with offices, housing, a conservatory of music and this library as the public heart of it all. Remember the name Jo Coenen, by the way. Years before this library, he drew up the master plan for one of the islands at the far end of this walk.
Inside it is busy but strangely quiet, like a cathedral with Wi-Fi. When you come back out, follow the water east and look for an enormous green building that seems to be sailing straight out of the harbour.