BIOGRAPHY J.W.C. Boks - Boks Eijkelenboom Middelhoek Boks (Joost Willemsen Cornelis Boks, born 30-12-1904 in Rotterdam and died 25-12-1986 in Rotterdam) graduated in 1931 from the Technical High School in Delft with M.J. Granpré Molière, incidentally with a design in modernist style. He then worked briefly as a draftsman with W. van Tijen in Rotterdam. Already in 1932 he settled in his hometown as an independent architect. After a few small renovations, he received his first larger commissions: a vacation home on the Veluwe (Oud-Milligen, 1936) and the Beatrix children's shelter in Rotterdam (1938-1939). By winning a few competitions just after the war (including a war monument Eindhoven 1947) he gained some notoriety. This earned him his first major commission in 1948: the Rotterdam Bouwcentrum. After its completion, commissions began to pour in. In addition to a number of villas, he mainly realized many utility buildings and offices in Rotterdam and its surroundings. In the 1940s and 1950s he designed a series of housing complexes for the Rotterdam Dry Dock Company in Pendrecht and on Heyplaat. In 1950, commissioned by the Dutch government, he made a study trip to the United States to study the hotel industry and tourism in general. It resulted in two strikingly beautiful hotels: the Brittania Hotel in Vlissingen (1955) and the Deltahotel in Vlaardingen (1955). A second major study trip to the U.S. and Japan followed in 1960. Illustrative of his growing status was his collaboration on the Dutch Pavilion in Brussels (1957-1958). In 1958, when his firm had grown considerably, he associated himself with W. Eijkelenboom (Wout Eijkelenboom, born 27-12-1924 in Vlaardingen, architect hbo) and A. Middelhoek (Abraham Middelhoek, born 18 August 1923, architect hbo), who had worked with him since 1951. The Boks Eijkelenboom Middelhoek firm grew to forty employees in the early 1960s. After Boks' serious illness in 1962, Eijkelenboom and Middelhoek took over leadership of the firm in 1965. Boks remained involved with the firm as a consulting architect until 1974, but would never fully recover from the effects of his illness. In 1974, the Eijkelenboom Middelhoek firm merged with the Gerritse firm to become the Eijkelenboom Gerritse & Middelhoek Architects. Boks' architecture can be characterized as moderately modernist. The earlier work is poetic and playful-fantasy and in its blending of modernism and traditionalism reminds most of F.A. Eschauzier. Use of materials, constructions and spatial solutions are often unconventional, with - especially also in the residential houses - many high, interlocking spaces and transitions from inside to outside. With the larger commissions in the 1950s, his architecture became more robust, partly under the influence of the then emerging brutalism. Initially, the influence of the Rotterdam shake-hands modernism of H. Maaskant and W. van Tijen is clearly recognizable. However, the use of materials, especially in the interiors, remains rich and the formal language often playfully unconventional. After his first American study trip, Boks, under the influence of Louis Kahn, develops a sober-monumental concrete and brick modernism with a classical undertone, which is expressed especially in the recurrent free-standing concrete columns. In this development toward a stricter, more monumental design, the influence of Eijkelenboom, which became increasingly strong after Boks' illness, can also be detected. Eijkelenboom was a much more disciplined designer, applying austere, monolithic forms and uniform dimensional systems. Most important works Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam (1948, various extensions until 1970) Summer house, Harfsen (1950) Private residence, Rotterdam (1951) Hotel Brittania, Flushing (1955) Deltahotel, Vlaardingen (1955) Residential-shopping complex, Eindhoven (1956-1957) Holy Hospital, Vlaardingen (1957-1965) Hall for Aviation and Shipping Dutch Pavilion World Exhibition Brussels (1957-1958) Office building V.O.S.-M.A.B.I, Rotterdam (1958-1959) Office building E.N.C.K., Vlaardingen (1961-1962) Student club Minerva, Leiden (1961-1964) Literature For the biography use was made of: G. ten Cate, EGM Architects, Rotterdam 2003 "Ir. J.W.C. Boks sixty years" in Bouw1965 (4), p124.