W. Noorlander (1877-1940) In the first half of the twentieth century, Willem Noorlander worked on various villas, housing complexes and warehouses in Amsterdam and its surroundings. In the style of the Amsterdam School with striking Art-Deco elements, he designed several cinemas, such as the Ceintuurtheater, with which he became well known. His archive contains a beautiful series of detailed sketches and fine perspectives in pencil, chalk and ink of cinemas and residential buildings in Amsterdam. The construction drawings and sketches reveal an extremely precise draughtsman. With the expressive perspectives, Noorlander knew how to present architecture in an inspirational way. Willem Noorlander was born in 1877 in Kralingen, Rotterdam. From 1908 to 1911, he attended the evening architectural course at the V.H.B.O. (voorbereidend hoger bouwkunstonderwijs) in Amsterdam and continued to live in Amsterdam for most of his life. The V.H.B.O. had been founded in 1908 by Architectura et Amicitia and was the forerunner of the later Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Renowned architects such as H.P. Berlage, W. Kromhout and H.J.M. Walenkamp taught at the school. Only students with practical experience were admitted to the evening course so that the symbiosis of theory and practice could be established. The emphasis was on practical situations and aesthetic subjects. The course was housed at the National Academy of Fine Arts (where the Department of Architecture had been abolished in 1870) and was to be the counterpart to the Delft Polytechnic School, where the emphasis was on technical subjects. The VHBO also had to meet the need for skilled architects in the Amsterdam region. In 1911, Noorlander was one of the first graduates to successfully complete the three-year course. During the course, he was commissioned by the City of Haarlem to work on designs for the expansion of the Haarlem Town Hall. In the years that followed, Noorlander drew perspectives of Weltevrede country house in Capelle aan den IJssel and numerous drawings and floor plans of fictitious homes, council houses and country houses. These highly detailed and beautiful study drawings were luxuriously published by the publisher Weduwe J. Ahrend & Sons in a cassette under the title: Architecture. About 60 drawings, printed on thick paper in A3 format, present mainly buildings in a neoclassical style with stylized sculpture and Art-Nouveau decorations. Several buildings are reminiscent of the work of Kromhout, and a number of villas with porticoes closely resemble the work of Berlage. On the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, Noorlander built a warehouse with offices and a tobacco warehouse in 1914-1915, commissioned by the firm Feldmann & Co. On the second floor of the austere building were the offices, sample room and reception rooms while the first floor was intended for the supply and removal of goods. The tall building is built of brick and has several natural stone elements In 1915 Noorlander realized the country house Eikenhoven in Rijsenburg, commissioned by Mr. H. Wienhoven. This villa is an early example of a building in the style of the Amsterdam School built outside the city of Amsterdam. The building is built in brick over two layers and has a high roof with a broken hipped roof. The facades incorporate several rising building sections over two stories with a separate mansard roof. Multiple bay windows and balconies give the building a sculptural expression. Above the entrance is a deep canopy with the name Eikenhoven above it in wrought iron. Characteristic Art-Deco elements include various, decorative brick motifs in the masonry and hexagonal window shapes. Cinemas Noorlander gained greater fame with his designs for various cinemas, such as the Ceintuur Theater (1921) on the Ceintuurbaan in Amsterdam and the Astoria cinema theater (1929) on the Mosplein in Amsterdam North. The handsome Ceintuur Theater has Amsterdam School features such as staggered facade components and Art-Deco elements such as the sculptural, tubular lamp sections and tower-like elements. But most striking is the fact that the expressive facade was made of concrete. This is in contrast to Amsterdam School style buildings that are almost always constructed of brick. The name of the cinema was placed on name plates in Art-Deco ornamental ironwork while the films were announced on the large surface in the center. Noorlander made a series of unusual drawings in pencil and ink of the cinemas with a fairy-tale look. The commissioner of the Ceintuur Theater was J.J. Otter; the director of the NV Verenigde Bioscopen. The Astoria Theatre on Mosplein is part of a larger complex of houses and stores that Noorlander designed. The whole is built in brick in a sober variant of the Amsterdam School also known as the Hague School. Several garden villages were built in Amsterdam-North from 1918 by the Amsterdam Housing Service under the directorship of socialist A. Keppler. In neighborhoods such as Vogeldorp, Nieuwendammerham or Oostzaan, numerous working-class families were housed in low-rise houses with a garden. Some of the residents came from the Jordaan where living conditions were poor. Near the garden villages the necessary facilities such as stores and schools were built. In Buiksloterham-Floradorp (1928-1931), Noorlander built a complex on Mosveld, Elzenstraat and Andoornstraat with the Astoria cinema; the only cinema in Amsterdam North. (Only the clubhouse Het Zonnehuis in Oostzaan hosted film screenings on a few days of the week.) The operation of Astoria was also in the hands of J.J. Otter. He not only contracted the films but also made use of the orchestra pit and stage with the programming of supporting artists. In the 1930s the combination of stage, cabaret or revue with film fell into disuse due to excessive costs. In the 1960s, Astoria was closed due to excessive operating costs and sold to Albert Heijn. Noorlander also worked on a renovation of the Rembrandt Theatre (1937), which he equipped with heating and ventilation. The facade was also given a new look of concrete creating space for large-scale film advertising. The theater was also called the giant mantel of Rembrandtplein after the renovation because of its tall blind facade. In 1943, the cinema was destroyed in a fire probably started by the resistance in protest against Nazi propaganda on the facade. In the 1930s, Noorlander also worked on a renovation of the casino theater in Hilversum in which the theater was expanded to include a coffee room cum dancing. Noorlander also designed a cinema in Velsen/IJmuiden-Oost (1938-1939). Housing construction Besides cinemas, Noorlander also made various plans for housing complexes in the 1920s and 1930s, such as in Amsterdam-Zuid on Stadionweg and in Rotterdam in Bergpolder. In Amsterdam-West, Noorlander worked on a block of housing developments at Columbusplein. The long streets and squares in this neighborhood are based on an urban plan by Gratama, Versteeg and Hulshoff. Different architects such as P. Kramer (Hoofdweg), J.F. Staal (Jan Evertsenstraat), H.Th. Wijdeveld (Hoofdweg) realized building blocks that form long street walls and striking corner blocks; all in a sober variant of the Amsterdam School. With block-like extensions, higher street corners, wide chimneys and long sets of windows, the walls are rhythmically articulated and the streets are all different in appearance.