'The mirrored facade is the most exciting thing because we are at the cutting edge of what can be achieved in architecture worldwide.'
Peter Slangen
'We are building something that has never been built anywhere else.'
Project manager Peter Slangen, who works for the City of Rotterdam, is a key figure in the realization of the depot. In the building ‘De Rotterdam’ on the Maas, Slangen explains his role.
You’ve been working on the depot as project manager for six years now. How did it all begin?
On my first day, I visited the people behind the initiative: Sjarel Ex of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Roelof Prins of De Verre Bergen Foundation and Petra Verspui, at that time the Property Director at Rotterdam City Council. I met three enthusiastic people who wanted to do something together, but as yet had no concrete ideas about how to move the project forward. I drew up a simple contract, without lawyers, which set out how we could approach this collectively and which agreements we wanted to establish. That was the starting point. It is important to mention that I have been appointed as project manager on behalf of the three parties, the project organization. I helped the museum complete the Schedule of Requirements, in which we established what the museum wanted from the depot; the number of square metres of depot and office space, for example, and how large the corridors had to be so that the artworks could be moved through them.
As project organizers did you select the architects as well?
Well, we began by approaching all the architects in the world. I fixed a budget and the architect with the best design for the depot would get the commission. We put together a panel of Dutch experts who assessed the designs. This selection process took nine months. MVRDV submitted the winning design. The panel described MVRDV’s concept as ‘absolutely international in its appeal, and inventive, too, and consequently of added value in this location in Museumpark and architectural hotspot Rotterdam. The strong reflections in conjunction with the building’s curved form will create a unique experience in the park’. We also hired the other parties – the contractor, the engineers and other consultants – on the basis of the Schedule of Requirements. I supervised the deals in order to secure the financing of the building. I manage the design teams and consultants, estimate the required expenditure, make sure we stay within budget, implement changes, monitor the planning and make sure that everyone agrees.
You are an important key figure in the entire project.
I’m not doing it on my own you know. I manage the project team along with project manager Laura Melissen. As project manager, I bear overall responsibility for the final result.
You have not given all the responsibility for the construction to the contractor. Why not?
The construction of the depot building is truly unique. We are building something that has never been built anywhere else. This means that we will come up against things in the design and build process that we had not considered before. We have to anticipate them. Certainly if they impact on the operation of the building, because that could potentially cost us a lot of money every year, and that could be for forty years. So it’s important that we manage them ourselves. The responsibility must lie with us and not with the contractor.
What were the tense decision moments in the City Council?
There were two decisive political moments: the zoning plan was drawn up by the City Council in November 2015. In December 2016 it was the go-or-no-go-moment when the City Council gave the final go-ahead for the building of the depot.
How is the build going now?
We are in the middle of the execution stage and I’m doing my very best to make sure that the building will be as we thought it would be. The mirrored facade is the most exciting thing because we are at the cutting edge of what can be achieved in architecture worldwide. We have to make sure that the curved glass does not have the effect of a fairground mirror. It’s a difficult process to get right. It will help determine whether the building is going to be a crowd-puller and a valuable addition to the city.
Depot Journal
This article has been published before in Depot Journal #1 which is part of a series of six. If you would like to receive all the printed Depot journals by post, please send an email to info@boijmans.nl with your full name and address, reference ‘receive Depot Journals’.