Looking inside: V&D building Alkmaar stripped for the future with homes and a supermarket

Loose wires, pipes, sprinkler systems and debris. In the old V&D nothing reminds of the hustle and bustle of shoppers in the well-known department store of yesteryear. The building on the Alkmaarse Laat is currently being completely stripped inside, although several historical elements have been preserved in the building

Exterior remains

This is assured by the Haarlem architects Heiko Hulsker and colleague Robbert van der Lee, who are giving NH a tour. “The inlaid marble staircase that led to the lunchroom, the glass elevator shaft and, for example, the stained glass windows of the boardroom,” Hulsker sums up. “And of course the national monumental exterior remains, with the clock and the name on the facade. The outside appearance will not change.”

After department store V&D went bankrupt, the building had several – temporary – users in recent years. Since 2020, the building, which stretches from the Laat to the Oudegracht, has been owned by the Bloemendaal project developers Frans Ludwig and Theo Eichholtz.

Rental apartments

They are having the complex converted into almost a hundred rental apartments, with a public bicycle shed and retail space on the ground floor. “We are talking to several supermarket chains.” The architects are not naming names. “Nothing has been signed yet, as far as we know,” said Hulsker. In the basement there will be storage and storage space for residents.

A challenge for the Haarlem architects to transform the building, which actually consists of two buildings with a floor area of ​​approximately 13,000 m². “We will first tackle the Laat side, followed by the building between Het Vijvertje and Oudegracht. We will also remove the gray ‘bridge’ that connects the two buildings.”

Text continues below photo.

About a hundred apartments will soon be built on the first and second floors. That is more than previously thought. This had to be changed due to new regulations. “But it has actually gotten better. It was a bit crammed before; now there is more air,” says architect Heiko Hulsker

“The vast majority will be rent, with around a third social rent. We are building a third floor on the roof: penthouses will be built there. It will probably be for sale.” But the biggest challenge is creating ‘daylight’.

Making light in a dark building

“Such a shop is very dark, very inward-looking, because that’s where you want to attract shoppers. Only the shop windows have large windows. The trick for us as architects is to do something about that.”

Holes will therefore be made in the roof. “With this you leave the outer facades intact, and you create a kind of squares or courtyards inside where you live. And you can make as many windows on those squares as you want, to get light into those homes.”

Logistic challenge

“Sometime in the coming weeks we will submit the permit application to the municipality for the building plans. The drawings are almost ready. And then we hope to start building the houses around the turn of the year.”

And when that time comes, that construction will also be a complicated job. “You are in the center of a city. Equipment can only be delivered in the morning, for example. So the logistics have to be well thought out. That is why it takes quite a long time. Somewhere around the summer of 2025, the former department store can be lived in,” thinks Hulsker

The impressions below give an idea of ​​what the buildings and apartments will look like according to the architects.