De mooiste kerstkoe

12 July 2012

The men and their big machines work steadily on. The shrinking big hill with the big pieces of rubble in the middle is pulverized and the little parts are then thrown on the growing hill on the right. They keep both hills wet to avoid dust blowing away. In two weeks' time, this piece of Amsterdam will look like the bible states the earth looked at the beginning of time: Void and Empty.

4 July 2012

The two apartment buildings are now one small mountain range. The buildings on the extreme left (behind the row of trees) have gone, too. By the end of July the whole area should be flat. After the summer holidays, construction should begin.

27 June 2012

If you look closely, you can see that they've started now on the flats on the left (behind the trees). By the end of July the whole terrain should be ready for a construction. But I'm sure they won't start building until after the summer holidays.

30 May 2012

Things are moving....

3 May 2012

The low houses on the other end have disappeared - as have the windows and walls of half of the flats on either side. It took a while to get there, because they found asbestos in the foundations that had to be removed first. Apparently, that job is done. The authorities expect the buildings to be gone by the end of June.

22 March 2012

Most action going on in the flat on the right. The wood has been removed and the men are now removing iron, I think, a lot of the balcony railing has gone. And they have opened the boxes on the ground floor to carry out - who knows what?

15 February 2012

A Room With A View

It is now 29 December 2012 and the shrubs and bushes have been removed, as has the children's playground, by the municipality men. The flats are now empty, the rooms and doors on the ground floor boarded. The demolishers are waiting for the the new year.

A Room With A View

Amsterdam, Slotervaart, November. This picture was taken by my cousin Tineke during a visit to our aunt - tante Katja - in November 2011. It is the small park that tante Katja has had for a view for the past fifty years. In those fifty years, as the trees grew older and bigger and (I like to think) happier, the place looked more pleasant every year.

But that is about to change: enter urban renewal. Slotervaarts (a borough in the west of Amsterdam) has decided the two buildings on the left and right of this picture will be demolished and replaced with other forms of housing. The park will be divided into garden plots. The green grass will make place for fences, garden sheds, tiled terraces and garden brownies.

Take a good look. This is about to disappear.