From old office to contemporary Short Stay Hotel

In The Hague, an old office building in the heart of The Hague was transformed into a new hip Short Stay Hotel with 37 Short Stay units. To achieve this, completely new facades, several roof extensions, an elevator and a new balcony were realized.

Anyone paying some attention to the execution of construction projects immediately sees that Aannemingsbedrijf G. Bruijnes had a challenge here. The only way to create a construction site for the transformation of the Buitenhof office building was to partially cordon off the square in front of the building. This formed the basis for stripping the building down to the supporting structure and then rebuilding it.

Limited space

"The logistical challenge was indeed great," says Peter Feijen, project manager of Aannemersbedrijf G. Bruijnes. "Given the many lifting operations, we had to rely on a tower crane. This had to be installed on top of the roof due to the lack of space. Moreover, this had to be done in the middle of the night, because that was the only time when the electricity grid of the passing streetcar could be shut down. And then we had to deal with two restaurants in the building, one on the left and one on the right, which continued to operate during the construction work. The logistics were really a puzzle."  

Lockdown

The coronal shockdown - which forced the two restaurants to close temporarily - worked in their favor here. Exactly during this period, Bruijnes laid the sewer system above the ceiling of the restaurants for the first and second floors. During the lockdown, she was able to penetrate the floor floors undisturbed. Exactly when the lockdown was lifted, Bruijnes was finished with these activities.

Varied facade construction

The facade was rebuilt with HSB walls, fitted with concrete facade elements and aluminum facade frames. For each floor, the concrete elements were placed first, so that the frames could be mounted on them. Feijen: "The order could not be changed, while the work was carried out by different subcontractors. This required consultation and tight planning. On the other hand, the connection to the adjoining buildings required creative solutions."

Elevator shaft expansion

The tower crane, which was still on the roof, in combination with the elevator construction also required creativity. Until before the renovation, the elevator only went up to the fourth floor, and now it had to be extended to the fifth floor. "But where the elevator had to be built up, there was the tower crane," Feijen says. "We then first dismantled the old elevator, then removed the crane and then built the elevator assembly. This was quite a setback for our employees, though. They were without a crane and elevators for weeks and had to use hoists and mobile cranes to get the materials into place."

About the result, Feijen is positive. "On the outside of the building, the original colors and lines have been maintained. On the inside, the entrance, apartments, hallways and the large apartment on the fifth floor have become beautiful."