'Steel and aluminum for House Modernes'

In the center of Utrecht, the former building of luxury department store Galeries Modernes has been restored to its former glory and transformed into House Modernes. After years of preparation and execution, JM van Delft & zn has finished renovating the complete facade of this iconic building. 

Commissioned by main contractor Heilijgers Bouw, JM van Delft & zn was responsible for the engineering, production, delivery and assembly process. With a creation of steel (exterior frames, balcony railings and canopies) and aluminum (frames in the rear facades, roof structure and roof lights), it tried to bring the design of this cutting-edge building to life, where it also had the opportunity to provide the ceramic tiles, produced in the same color as in the initial design.

The family business, which specializes in the development, production, delivery and assembly of aluminum and steel window frames and other façade elements, is no stranger to complex inner-city projects such as this one. In similar projects, for example Rokin Plaza and Scheldeplein in Amsterdam, the facade builder already proved that it can completely unburden clients. "We were involved in this project at an early stage by developer Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance and ZZDP Architects," says Albert Emmers, project manager at JM van Delft & zn. "We carried out everything in-house. Since this old building had already been remodeled several times and hardly any drawings were available, everything was digitally measured in order to work accurately. This way, no problems occurred during production and assembly."