Joan Melchior van der Meij (1878-1949) is known as one of the founding fathers of the Amsterdam School. Winner of the Prix de Rome (1906) and the Dam Prize Competition (1908), he was considered a promising, up-and-coming talent in his day. Early in his career, he was commissioned for what would become his most famous creation: The Shipping House (1911), a luxury office building for six shipping companies. That same year, he joined the Amsterdam Department of Public Works as an aesthetic consultant. Here Van der Meij realized a large number of bridges, utility buildings and urban development plans, making grateful use of the new building materials and techniques (such as photography) offered by modern times. In this turbulent period, full of political and economic crises, Amsterdam grew from a provincial town to a modern city. Van der Meij contributed to this with his designs for many housing complexes in the twentieth-century expansion districts. Architecture historian Michiel Kruidenier and designer Paul Smeets discuss Van der Meij's role within the Amsterdam School and Dutch architectural history on the basis of numerous, never before published drawings, letters and photographs. The book describes Van der Meij's turbulent life, full of fame and success, disaster and financial woes, and also includes a complete overview of his work.