Tuesday 4 April 2017

docklands

Taking a stand against the gentrification of its old wharf and shipyard—which is already seeing developers transforming the area with posh hotels and restaurants—local caretaker Peter Ernst Coolen has designs on the massive ensemble of abandoned warehouses on the north side of the IJ that formed the Netherlands Dock and Shipbuilding Company with plans to create the world’s largest street art museum on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The venue is ideal and Coolen hopes to open the museum next summer—and although not as expansive, it reminds me of the old slaughterhouse behind the train station in Wiesbaden and few other local spots adorned with graffiti.