G. Westerhout (1893-1976) The son of a builder with a plastering business, Gart Westerhout came into contact with the world of construction at an early age. Together with Gerrit Rietveld, he took drawing lessons at Kunstliefde and then did the drawing course at the Rijksnormaalschool in Amsterdam. After about three years of teaching at the third vocational school at Timorplein in Amsterdam, Westerhout was appointed draughtsman for the construction of the Leiden University Library from 1915 to 1918. In 1918 he joined the Government Buildings Service as a structural engineer with Johannes Vrijman, Head of the Office for the Buildings of Education. After a year he applied for a job in Batavia with the architectural firm of Eduard Cuypers where he stayed for about a year and a half. In the 1920s he again joined the Government Buildings Department. Here he got to know Hayo Hoekstra, among others, who worked for the Rijksgebouwendienst as chief architect from 1924 and who later became best known for his pre-war design for the monumental tax building in Rotterdam (1939-1946). Westerhout worked at the Education Buildings Office and was responsible for smaller building activities for the Technical High School in Delft. He also built a number of interesting schools such as the H.B.S. in Ter Apel and the H.B.S. in Almelo. In 1930, Westerhout settled as a private architect in The Hague. After World War II, he rejoined the government; at the Municipality of The Hague in the department of urban development and public housing. In 1949 he became chief architect/department head of the municipal housing department there. During this period, Westerhout realized several housing complexes in The Hague, including an apartment building for unmarried ladies in collaboration with the architect duo Pot and Pot-Keegstra. In 1951 his career took a new turn. After being honorably discharged at his own request, he founded a partnership in The Hague together with H. (Hayo) Hoekstra; the Ingenieurs- en Architecten bureau Hoekstra & Westerhout. Hoekstra was now eligible for retirement and no longer employed by the Government Buildings Agency. In the 1920s he had already become involved in the expansions for the Academic Hospital in Groningen, where he then designed the layout of the new hospital grounds. In the 1950s, Hoekstra and his partner Westerhout were approached again for a structural plan for the hospital for the next 20-25 years. More hospitals followed, such as the new hospital in Schiedam and hospital projects in Delft, Delfzijl and Den Helder. In the late 1950s, after Hoekstra retired, Westerhout continued the collaboration with E. Smid and H.J. Cramer. The firm was renamed Bureau Westerhout, Smid and Cramer. Work From the National Building Service, Westerhout worked on the Rijks-H.B.S in Ter Apel. The school was built to his design in 1922-1924, as was the accompanying detached janitor's house. Westerhout accommodated the classrooms in a volume with a T-plan and applied the Amsterdam School style. He also designed the interior and the furniture. By building the school in the Amsterdam School style, Westerhout broke with the then policy of the firm that built mainly in the spirit of Cuypers. In Almelo, he also realized a Rijks Hogere Burgerschool in 1924-1926. This striking building clearly has an affinity with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, particularly through its horizontal articulation and gently sloping roof hoods. The elongated, yellow-brick complex is situated in a beautiful location along the canal. In 1925 Westerhout completed the administration building of the Academic Hospital in Leiden, the first phase of which had been built in 1920 by J.M. de Groot. In 1929-1931 another building of his was the soil science institute of the University of Groningen. In the 1930s Westerhout worked as an independent architect on, among other things, a beautiful swimming pool building in The Hague. The Bosbad, located near the Haagse Bos, looked very modern thanks to its white plastered walls, large steel windows and flat roofs. He is also said to have built a sea hospice in Kijkduin during this period, which unfortunately was destroyed in the war. In the 1950s, Westerhout was involved as supervisor in the Morgenstond plan in The Hague, where a residential neighborhood of working-class and middle-class houses was being built based on Dudok's urban design plan. Despite the tight budgets and limited possibilities, a diversity in architecture is visible. Although Westerhout and the Welstandcommissie had spoken out in favor of rooftops, blocks with flat roofs were also completed because of the experiments with system construction. Dudok's plan was further supplemented by several tall residential buildings. In Loosduinen, he realized the Dutch Reformed Easter Church (1953). The striking brick church has a tall, slender bell tower and a trapezoidal church hall. Free-standing round, concrete columns support the steel roof structure. In the facades concrete and bluestone ornaments such as round and castellated windows and cruciform elements. For the sanatorium Sonnevanck near Harderwijk, Westerhout worked on a church with a recreation center (1962). Hospitals Beginning in 1951, Westerhout worked as an independent architect with Hoekstra on an expansion plan for the hospital in Groningen. Contrary to the trend at the time for new hospitals designed as large complexes, the new structural plan for the MSF (1955) maintained the existing small-scale pavilion structure. The planning area was further compacted with detached buildings. The construction of a road across the site offered a better solution for opening up the open middle area and the nearby Oostersingel that acted as a ring road. Incidentally, Westerhout and Hoekstra's plan was only partially implemented. In the 1960s Westerhout designed the Oude- en Nieuwe Gasthuis in Delft, a large hospital complex with numerous departments such as treatment house, outpatient clinic, mortuary, laboratory and a detached nurses' house. Smid was involved as executive architect. Also with this division of labor, they built a new municipal hospital in Schiedam on the site of an old hospital where the old building was to remain in operation until the new one was completed. Treatment house, bed house, outpatient clinic and services were linked together as separate buildings with varying heights and placed in a long series. The nine-story bedhouse was centrally located. For the Social and Economic Council (1971) in The Hague, Westerhout, together with Smid and Cramer, designed a large-scale office building on Bezuidenhoutseweg with the furnishings provided by the architect H. Salomonson. Westerhout also held numerous ancillary positions in the world of art and architecture. For example, in the 1930s he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Bouwkundig Weekblad. After the war, he held such diverse positions as advisor on the appearance of buildings in Breda, chairman of the H.P. Berlage Foundation, and chairman of the board of directors of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.