The 150 year old orangery at Eikenrode in Loosdrecht will be demolished, sources close to Eikenrode say. The orangery (which might have been designed by J.D. Zocher jr) played an important role in the plans to revitalise the estate: it was to be restored and house care apartments. But it was set to fire in December 2007.
The damaged orangery in September 2008. Photo by HvdE.
In an initial response shortly after the fire, RACM concluded that although severe damage was done, restoration of the orangery was still possible. The orangery also kept its status as a monument of national importance (Rijksmonument). A few months later the whole future of Eikenrode was at stake, when banks decided to put the estate up for auction. These plans were curbed at the last moment, but the initial reason for this auction never became clear.
The plan to sell the orangery to a third party who will demolish the building, was allegedly induced by the discovery of large quantities of asbestos in the orangery. The associated costs to clean the site were too high for the current owners (which may explain why the banks planned the sudden auction).
The solution chosen is to have the orangery demolished, the site cleaned and a new building with care apartments erected by a third party. That same party will manage the new building and the surrounding garden in this part of Eikenrode for a period of about 30 years. After that, the care apartments and adjacent grounds should apparently return to the current owners of the estate.
We at HGblog expect RACM has worked with the owners to develop these new plans. A final decision is expected in the near future.
This looks like a practical solution for the owners of Eikenrode, who saw a vital source of income go down the drain when the orangery caught fire. And given the efforts they have put into the restoration of the house and park up till now, we’re certain the decision was made with pain in their hart. But still: what a shame of that fine orangery.
The fate of the Eikenrode estate in Loosdrecht has turned from bright to dim in a matter of only two months. Last April I could report that Eikenrode was one of seven estates to receive a restoration grant from the big Dutch VSBfonds. This grant was preceded by another grant five months earlier: in December 2006 RACM decided to fund the restoration of the coach house/orangerie with an amount of € 293,575.00.1
Coach house at Eikenrode after the fire
On December 15th, 2007 (almost to the day one year after the RACM grant was awarded), while all necessary paperwork for the upgrade of the structure to several apartments was ready, said coach house/orangerie caught fire and was severely damaged. According to a local source the fire was probably started intentionally, because the empty building was cut off from any gas or electricity lines.2
Luckily for the owners of Eikenrode, RACM came with a quick assessment that, although many original features were lost, the remains of the building were still considered to be a monument, which meant the building activities could go ahead.
But the next blow came by the end of January 2008. Not in the form of flames this time, but in the form of nervous banks announcing the public sale of Eikenrode on March 4th, 2008. What happened? Since 1974 Eikenrode had been owned by the local counsil, in whose hands the estate deteriorated. Plasmeijer started his reconstructive work on the estate in the year 2000, with silent support from the local counsil -who still owned the grounds surrounding the house. Both parties decided in April 2007 to formaly transfer the complete estate to Plasmeijer, the new ‘lord of the manor’ with two restoration grants in his pocket to back his plans up. This transfer process took a while and has yet to be finalised, reason for the participating banks to withdraw their support and announce the public auction.3
The bank’s action has been condemned and deemed ‘premature’ by both the local counsil and Plasmeijer. According to them, all parties are working hard to complete the transfer before March 4th. To be continued, I’m sure.
Edit @ February 25th 2008: I found a short ‘movie’ of the fire on YouTube, with some comments from a local at the end. The comment is in Dutch, ofcourse.
In that same month, owner Martien Plasmeijer received the largely symbolic title of Ambachtsheer van Mijnden en de beide Loosdrechten from his predecessor. [back]
The ink of my previous post wasn’t even used (let alone had time to dry) when more news about restoration projects came to light. The Dutch funding institution VSBfonds reports it will invest € 3,8m in the restoration of 7 estates in The Netherlands. The estates are:
Reconstruction work in progress at Twickel, October 2007
According to the VSB website, 9 restoration plans have been submitted by estates which were previously selected for the 2006 pilot. This selection was made in cooperation with RACM and PHB. It is the first time this grant has been awarded, if the pilot succeeds a new tender for the year 2007 will be announced.
Grants will only be awarded to restoration plans that comprise the full restoration of the estate. No money will be granted to partial restoration plans.
Mr. Kees de Ruiter, president of the new Dutch organisation responsible for the protection of the cultural heritage, RACM, held a plea to protect 10% of the Dutch cultural landscape as historical landscapes.
In an interview he claimed that regional differences are disappearing in an increasing pace, pointing at the same terracotta pots used everywhere and similarities between industrial estates throughout the country. At the moment no cultural landscapes have been protected formally.
And although I like the idea in general, I am slightly disturbed by the fact that the interview apparently did not state any requirements for this 10% -nor did it state which parameters mr. De Ruiter wants to use to select the greater group of so-called cultural landscapes. It did, however, state that we should be well considered about what we do with the other 90% percent of the cultural landscape, meaning the to-be-unprotected part of what can at best be descibed as an ill defined group of landscapes (within the even greater group of Dutch landscapes -which are all not natural, and as a consequence, he means the whole of The Netherlands?), which are changing in such a rapid pace, they must defy definition.
Sometimes no news is the best news.
Update (Feb 4, 2007): Unesco created this website recently, on which their criteria to ascertain whether a certain landscape qualifies as a ‘cultural landscape’ can be found, as well as an overview of the landcapes listed thusfar. Interesting stuff. Does not exactly help me to clarify what Mr. De Ruiter really wants, though.
