Mayor Koen Schuiling presented the Honorary Medal of the Municipality of Groningen to architect Jurjen van der Meer on Thursday during the opening of the Let’s Gro event.
By awarding the Medal of Honor, the municipal council expresses its appreciation for its major role in spatial planning.
Van der Meer is the founder of the Groningen architectural firm De Zwarte Hond. After studying Architecture, he worked in Berlin for a number of years, after which he founded the architectural firm Karelse & van der Meer together with Thon Karelse. Since 2004, the agency has been called De Zwarte Hond.
In forty years he has made an enormous contribution to the spatial quality of the city of Groningen. In Groningen he designed, among other things, the building of the RO/EZ Department (now Urban Development), the hotel on the Hoge der Aa, the Agaathhof, the super hub in Meerstad, the Grunobuurt and the new building of Vindicat.
Van der Meer was also at the basis of Meerstad. He manages the real estate of cultural institutions such as the Grand Theater and the Grunneger Sproak behind the scenes and he was chairman of the Welstands Committee for many years.
These people preceded Van der Meer
The Medal of Honor of the Municipality of Groningen has now been awarded 51 times since its introduction in 1998. In recent years, the Medal of Honor has been awarded to Henk Snapper, Klaas Drenth, Pieter Bregman, Niek Verdonk, Jason Dourisseau, WEEVA and Auke de Boer.