A view and two plane trees

In the previous post I was quite positive about the newly built temple at Twickel, and I still am. But there is another fairly recent addition to the garden that I do not understand, certainly not when seen in connection with one of the main objectives that accompanied the installation of the temple on the ‘Bergje’.

Hermit’s lodge in October 2007. Photo by HvdE.

That particular objective (not mentioned in my previous post) is that through an opening in the planting on the mount, a clear view at the hermit’s lodge on an island to the south of the temple would be established. 1To quote architect Michael van Gessel on the Twickel website: “Daar heeft men dan plotseling het volle zicht op het park met de Hermitage op het eiland aan de zuidzijde van het Grote Meer als eindpunt.”
Edit May 18, 2014: It has come to my attention that the link to this quote is lost. That is a shame, as it was the reason to write this post, and the reason why I spoke of inconsistencies in either the planning or the execution of the plan. Luckily I managed to find the link again through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The text ‘Tempel op het bergje’, where I took Michael van Gessel’s quote from, is now added as an image, the sentence highlighted for clarity.
 The picture below shows that last year that view was already there. This year it was even better because some of the plants on the mount were cleared. There is still some planting of evergreens to be done, all the way to the top of the hill. But I am quite certain they will keep this view in mind when the ‘Bergje’ is being replanted (probably in the 2008-2009 planting season).

View from the ‘Bergje’ towards the hermit’s lodge taken in October 2007 (out of focus). The site of the newly planted plane trees (Platanus) is highlighted in magenta. In ten years time these trees will have grown big enough to fully block the view at the lodge.
Photo by HvdE.

What I do not understand is highlighted in the photo above. Recently, but not later than Spring 2007, two plane trees (Platanus) have been planted on the field between the pond called ‘Grote Meer’ (with the island and the hermit’s lodge) and the smaller pond called ‘Fonteingat’ (at the foot of the mount, not visible on this photo). 2The plane trees were already planted at the time the statement quoted in note 1 was published. There they accompany an age old plane oak tree. The two new trees are planted way too close to that mature specimen -one can already see them bending sideways, away from the extended branches of the old tree. The new trees are also planted closely to one another (although the angle makes the distance look ridiculously small here -they are further apart than that). 3The fact that the new trees are planted so close may reflect a usual trick in landscape gardens. The trees will grow away from each other to create room for themselves. The result is that the combined crowns will look more mature at an early stage than could be achieved with one or two separate trees.
I can only hope the two trees are planted there as an addition to the already impressive foliage the mature plane oak tree is providing. The only other explanation for those trees being there I can think of is that they are planted as back up for when the mature tree dies. Which -if true- would be a reenactment of a ‘revitalisation policy’ that became popular in the 1980s in forestry circles, but has long since been judged by garden historians and restorators as a good way to forever destroy the original intent of a garden design.

One could of course argue that Twickel is not actually restoring its park, but is, well… revitalising it. That plan includes the addition of features that serve the overall purpose. Apart from the temple, some other new features have already been added to the park that were not there before. And that is alright.
But if we zoom in on this particular action, it makes no difference what reason may have lead to choosing this location for the new plane trees. Because in ten to fifteen years time they will have grown large enough to completely block the otherwise meticulously planned view from the temple on top of the ‘Bergje’ towards the hermit’s lodge on the island.

Either the planned view is not considered important anymore, or the trees are planted there by mistake. It is a pitiful inconsistency, which ever way you look at it.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 To quote architect Michael van Gessel on the Twickel website: “Daar heeft men dan plotseling het volle zicht op het park met de Hermitage op het eiland aan de zuidzijde van het Grote Meer als eindpunt.”
Edit May 18, 2014: It has come to my attention that the link to this quote is lost. That is a shame, as it was the reason to write this post, and the reason why I spoke of inconsistencies in either the planning or the execution of the plan. Luckily I managed to find the link again through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The text ‘Tempel op het bergje’, where I took Michael van Gessel’s quote from, is now added as an image, the sentence highlighted for clarity.
2 The plane trees were already planted at the time the statement quoted in note 1 was published.
3 The fact that the new trees are planted so close may reflect a usual trick in landscape gardens. The trees will grow away from each other to create room for themselves. The result is that the combined crowns will look more mature at an early stage than could be achieved with one or two separate trees.

The new temple at Twickel

Those who want to see the new temple at Twickel with their own eyes will have to wait till spring 2009, when the gardens are opened to the public again. If you can’t wait that long, I have a picture or two of the new temple that may help pass the six five months till then with more ease (and anticipation, perhaps).
More images of the temple and Twickel as a whole are presented when you click the link ‘Twickel’ behind ‘HGimages’ below this post.

The temple is built as part of the second phase of the ongoing improvements under supervision of landscape architect Michael van Gessel, a process that started as early as 1999. Inspiration for this temple was found nearby: a design from 1833 by Johan David Zocher Jr. was retained in the Twickel house archives. That design was never executed, nor do we know for which location of the park it was originally intended.

The new temple on its elevated location. Photo by HvdE.

The idea to create the temple at this spot came in connection with plans to upgrade a location which had become derelict: the mount (‘Bergje’). It is a high and steep artificial hill lying right next to the pond that was dug there in the late 18th century, the Fonteingat. What should have been a focal point as well as an elevated spot to have an overview over the garden from, had –ironically- turned into a rather secluded spot in the garden. That had to change.

Last year the plan was announced on the website of Twickel. This year the building work has been done. The planting of the slopes of the hill, which should be covered in plants except for its ‘summit’ (according to last year’s announcement), will probably take place in the upcoming planting season.

The temple is a beautiful small neo-classical building with a copper plated roof supported by six Doric columns. It does provide a good focal point and it is a welcome addition, especially when seen from the part of the garden directly behind the castle, where the castle itself used to be the main and almost only focal point for the visitor.

The plans included a refurbishing of the paths circling up and down the hill to and from the top. Up till now, they were lined with simple wooden railings and were mere soil paths. In the new situation, the railing has gone and the paths are lined with stones of all shapes and sizes -I saw a fragment of a millstone in there somewhere- forming irregular steps and preventing the soil from obeying gravity.

New plan at Eikenrode: demolish the orangery

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.

Excavating a modern garden

Jardines de Pedro Luis Alonso, a garden I have only seen once -looking down from halfway up the hill towards the Gibralfaro Castle in Málaga (Spain)- prompted some of the general questions garden historians face when writing about a garden. Especially when the garden is not very familiar to them, or when information is not readilly accessible (in this case: because Spanish is a language I do not have a thorough command of).

The splendid photo above, taken in the 1940s, shows the central part of the garden in a pristine state of preparation. It almost looks like a textbook example of garden archaeology, with the different levels to which the excavators dared to venture in their efforts to get a grasp on the unknown garden they have found and whose layout they are trying to record. Photo by Xavieris.

And as historical gardens go, this should be an easy one: it is a 20th century design, laid out right next to the city hall of Málaga, so there should be no lack of trustworthy records. There probably aren’t, but I’ll leave those to the local enthusiasts to dig through. General sources I have access to show that the origins of such a ‘new’ garden -of minor importance, maybe, but still- can become quite unclear within a few decades.
Gardenvisit.com, for instance, says that the garden was designed in 1945 by the architect Guerrero Strachan, and that the design is an evocation of the dictatorial Franco years.

But Fernando Guerrero Strachan died in 1930, 15 years before he allegedly designed the garden -and a few years before Franco came to power. It is ofcourse possible that he made the design before his death, but that the actual execution of the garden -no pun intended- was delayed by the Spanish Civil War. Then this photo would mark the finishing of this garden in 1945, from a design made 15 years earlier. Continue reading

Research budget for the Leyduin belvedere

Around a month ago a large ‘auction’ of landscape features in The Netherlands was announced, in an attempt to rake in more money to protect and maintain these vital landscapes. A website is available where people can bid for their favourite piece of landscape. People do not actually buy a piece of land or countryside, but they do provide the money for maintenance, and in return receive a promise that this landscape feature will not be threatened within ten years after the auction.

I think it is a great idea to make more money available for the protection of landscape features. People are more inclined to give (extra) money to particular projects than they would for a more general countrywide protection scheme.
Some of the projects presented in the auction are still rather generic. You can buy a native tree for € 5,- or something, somewhere in the countryside (and then hope that somebody is actually going to look after this tree for ten years). But there are also more specific goals.

One of these is the restoration of the belvedere at Leyduin. 1To my surprise it is the only one in the whole auction that has any bearing on historical gardens. The organisations behind this auction own loads of historical gardens and estates. There are way more opportunities there to profit from in the future. The dilapidated belvedere has been in a terrible state for a long time. Several attempts to put a stop to the decline have only helped temporarily. The owner, Landschap Noord-Holland, thinks the research itself will cost € 15.000,-, while the whole restoration budget is estimated to be € 80.000,-.

The funny thing is, that this belvedere was built in the late 18th century, in a time when building a ruin to adorn your garden with was quite normal. 2The structure was first mentioned in 1798, as a hermit’s lodge on a hill –hermitage op een heuvel. The ruin at Frankendael (built somewhat later, but in the same spirit) is a good example of how that was done. So where the owner tries to repair the belvedere into its original state, that original state might be closer to the current state than the owner now believes.
As far as I have been able to find out, no contemporary images of the belvedere exist. But the original description as a hermit’s lodge suggests that the building was not a neat neogothical tower, but already a ‘romantically dilapidated’ structure to begin with.
I’m curious to find out whether that will actually be the result of the architectural research.

And while Landschap Noord-Holland is trying to restore this tower, they might also want to consider restoring the area around the nearby cascade.

The situation around the Leyduin cascade as it was depicted on a postcard around 1900.

The cascade is still there, although it has not been working properly since the water levels in the dunes dropped considerably after the city of Amsterdam started to use it for their public water supplies. But that might change now the excessive draining has stopped. This spot is currently rather bleak and empty and could use some form of decoration and lightening up.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 To my surprise it is the only one in the whole auction that has any bearing on historical gardens. The organisations behind this auction own loads of historical gardens and estates. There are way more opportunities there to profit from in the future.
2 The structure was first mentioned in 1798, as a hermit’s lodge on a hill –hermitage op een heuvel.

Much ado about Jagtlust

A neighbour who states that the new owner ‘undermines its own guiding principles’; a local council (Wijdemeren) who seems to be surprised by plans to start a ‘care hotel’ (zorghotel) in the main house, and hits back hard at an individual who opposes to the plans; a new owner who teams up with a party that presents future events in past tense.

Who said life was quiet in the Wijdemeren community? 1Just over a month ago, all resources at the local council were needed to prevent the sudden public sale of Eikenrode in Loosdrecht (which by the way will also house a ‘care hotel’), in which Wijdemeren was and still is an active party. It seems somebody is not paying enough attention over there. See this blog’s archives.
Now there is unrest concerning Jagtlust‘s future, with fears that new owner Natuurmonumenten is trading in its principles against hard cash and an extension of its hiking path in the area. The Wijdemeren council seems to be surprised by both the plans and the protests.

What’s the story? In 2006 Jagtlust was sold to Natuurmonumenten, whose reputation in the area is good. The preservation of both natural and historical values seems to be in good hands with this organisation. The park was to be partially opened for the public, the seller was going to move into the coach house. Everybody seemed to be pleased with this situation.
A week ago plans for the ‘care hotel’ at Jagtlust were made public by Thuiszorg Gooizorg. At the same time (and conveniently mentioned in the online newspaper article), a website was presented, showing how great life at ‘Zorghotel Residentie Jagtlust‘ was going to be -and why not, they are trying to sell something.
Today that same newspaper reports on the protesting neighbour. He says Natuurmonumenten has been felling age-old trees on behalf of a new hiking path (where they could have easily used the existing paths). If true, this would contradict Natuurmonumenten‘s pledge to preserve the historical context of the park, but the organisation stresses that their work is in line with their guiding principles.
The protesting neighbour also suggests that the local council was taken by surprise and points out that the new house of the former owner is flagged as an office area in the zoning plan, which would make living there illegal.

As a response, Wijdemeren wrote a piece on their web newspaper where they say the council has not yet received official requests to amend the current zoning plan, but earlier its mayor and aldermen have advised positively on the plans by Thuiszorg Gooizorg and Natuurmonumenten. 2Notulen vergadering burgemeester en wethouders d.d. 25 maart 2008, page 3, point 19. The proposals need to comply with all legal aspects of the monumental status the house and park have, and need the stamp of approval of at least two other organisations before they can be approved by the council. The piece ends with a rather underhand -but maybe unintentional- characterisation of Jagtlust‘s neighbour as a professional protester who lost in many cases.

So: it seems there is a lot ado about nothing, yet the way in which this conflict is fought out suggests otherwise.

One thing the local press has not picked up (again): the high-pitched protest may have been initiated by the zorghotel website. In the section called ‘Opening’ reference is made to an opening in June 2008, which was followed by an impressive official opening party in August. All texts in this section are in past tense (it is now the beginning of April 2008, so the events take place at least two months from now).

The story on the zorghotel website is obviously fake. It all looks like a playful joke. But the text leaves the impression that the zorghotel is a fait accompli. And that is not a smart move when you have only just begun to request approval for your plans.
Clumsy operating is not recommended for an organisation as highly dependent on trust as a ‘care hotel’.

In the archives: more stories on Jagtlust and Eikenrode.

Edited @ April 4, 2008 to remove a stupid mistake. Also added the image.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Just over a month ago, all resources at the local council were needed to prevent the sudden public sale of Eikenrode in Loosdrecht (which by the way will also house a ‘care hotel’), in which Wijdemeren was and still is an active party. It seems somebody is not paying enough attention over there. See this blog’s archives.
2 Notulen vergadering burgemeester en wethouders d.d. 25 maart 2008, page 3, point 19. The proposals need to comply with all legal aspects of the monumental status the house and park have, and need the stamp of approval of at least two other organisations before they can be approved by the council.

A late 18th century Sanssouci-Texel connection?

Sometimes finding similarities between garden designs is just a matter of coincidence, or luck. Despite that, it always results in a feeling of accomplishment which is deserved nor appropiate. It also tends to lead to more questions than answers, which is nice, but not very helpful. This is such a case.

Browsing through one of last year’s more eye-catching books, I stumbled upon a maze I knew I’d seen before -or a slight variation to the design. 1Katrin Schröder: ‘Englische Parthien’ and foreign trees- The ‘natural taste’ in the Frederician garden arts of Prussia; in: Prussian Gardens in Europe. 300 Years of Garden History. Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) 2007, pp. 34-39.

p2270899.JPG

The Sanssouci maze. Detail of a -not executed- part of a remodelling plan made around 1775. SPSG plan collection 11790 (photo from book in note 1). The palace -and the north- is to the right. The image is rotated 180 degrees, which is why all trees are depicted upside down.

This Prussian example of a combined circular and rectangular maze reminded me of a similar maze I saw a short while ago, when I read about a former maze on the isle of Texel, in the upper northern parts of The Netherlands. 2The current owner, Staatsbosbeheer, announced a revitalisation of the Doolhof (the Dutch name for a maze and, though the maze itself has gone, still the name for the road running past it). It soon became clear that by revitalisation Staatsbosbeheer meant refurbishing the paths and adding some benches and more attractive plants to the worn-out bush the Doolhof had become. engelsteen_texel_1790.jpgI managed to find this terrible image of a plan, which -according to its source– should date from around 1790.
These mazes are not identical, but despite the differences between them, they are remarkably similar. Both have a circular maze with a -slightly crooked- rectangular appendix; but the Texel maze has only one center, where the one proposed for Sanssouci seems to have two.
Both circular mazes are made up of two paths, spiralling outwards from the center of the maze -or rather: inward to the center of the maze.
They both have one path leading from the center that’s ending in a dead end; although the Texel one has a way out from there, while the Sanssouci maze forces you to go all the way back to the center and try the other path.

The Texel design made before or after 1786?
Depending on which source one chooses to use, the Texel design was made before between 1764 and 1786 (for Cornelis Roepel) or between 1786 and 1794 (for Arie Kikkert). 3The latter period is also mentioned in a recent publication on mazes and labyrinths: Fons Schaefers and Anne Miecke Backer, Doolhoven & Labyrinten in Nederland, Uitgeverij De Hef Publishers, 2007, p. 44 (under the alternative name: ‘Het Bosje’). I believe the maze as shown here might date from before 1786, because of the name used on the plan. The small area has had an impressive amount of names in the past. “Engelsteen” is the name used on the plan from ±1790. An alternative was “Engelse Steen” (“English Stone”). Both names refer to a local belief that the rocky underground of this elevated plot of land was part of one huge stony slab, which supposedly connected Texel to England underneath the North Sea. In fact it is an isolated sediment, created during one of the ice-ages. Today it is simply known as ‘Doolhof‘ or ‘Het Bosje‘ (‘The [small] forest’). kaart_met_texel.jpg

Part of the North Sea, with Texel in the circle on the right.
The Rede van Texel (‘road’ or ‘anchorage’) was situated to the east of the island.

One source is very elaborate about Arie Kikkert creating the maze, refurbishing the place with clipped hedges and summerhouses with benches and mural paintings. This all supports a creation date of 1786 or later. So that source dates the plan to ±1790. It also says Kikkert renamed his patch of forest into “‘s Lands Welvaartszicht“. 4That name translates roughly as “Prospect of the country’s Prosperity”, probably because from this elevated spot -a whopping 15 meters above sea leavel!- on the island he had a good view at the tradeships from Amsterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen docking at the Rede van Texel), waiting for a favourable wind to sail out to the East Indies. And it does not question why the map sports the old name for his property, instead of the new one he himself invented? I believe the plan was made before 1786. One source even specifies this and dates it to the last months of 1774, but does not give any supporting evidence for that claim. 5Doolhof: Tegen de Hoge Berg ligt een interressant loofbosje dat de Doolhof wordt genoemd. Het werd eind 1774 aangelegd door Cornelis Roepel of Ruepel, commissaris van de Amsterdamse Admiraliteit, die daarmee een lusthof voor zichzelf en zijn familie wilde creëren. De trap op het hoogste punt (15 meter boven de zeespiegel) van het bosje wordt ook wel de Zeven Pannekoeken genoemd. Het doolhof, zo genoemd naar de labyrintische dooreengevlochte slingerpaden valt onder beheer van de Stichting Natuurmonumenten en Staatsbosbeheer.

Relationship between the two desings?
Regardless of its precise dating, the plan for the Texel maze has been created approximately the same time or shortly after the Sanssouci remodelling plan was drawn. Which does raise the question how and why these two almost simultaneous designs can bear so much similarities? They are separated by almost 600 kilometers of land and sea and situated in separate countries. The Sanssouci design was made for a Prussian king, the Texel design for a local buff, working in or highly dependant of a country whose political and economical role was diminishing sharply -and with no known cultural relations whatsoever.

If the design was indeed made for Cornelis Roepel, there is a chance he may have had contacts with important garden owners with connections or ideas. Roepel worked for the Admiraliteit van Amsterdam (Amsterdam Admiralty), which was one of the most powerful and influential organisations in The Netherlands. And although Roepel was situated in what we now consider as an outpost of the country, in his age this was the point where tradeships from all over the world anchored before sailing through to Amsterdam -or vice versa.
The design has a familiar feel to it, but I still haven’t figured out how these designs ended up looking like each other as they do. Both gardens may have had the same designer, but it seems more likely both designs refer to another example. The only example I know that comes close to these two, is a design published by Dezallier d’Argenville. Although that design was highly popular and used in several gardens in The Netherlands, it must have been oldfashioned by the time the Texel and Sanssouci designs were made. Besides that, it only accounts for the paths, spiralling out from the center of the maze. None of the other characteristics of the Sanssouci and Texel mazes are present.
I doubt these mazes have had the same designer. But there surely is one combined source for both designs?

krulvanleblond.jpg

‘Dessein d’un Labirinthe avec des cabinets et des Fontaines’, from: Antione Joseph Dézallier d’Argenville, La Théorie et Pratique du Jardinage, Paris, 1709.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Katrin Schröder: ‘Englische Parthien’ and foreign trees- The ‘natural taste’ in the Frederician garden arts of Prussia; in: Prussian Gardens in Europe. 300 Years of Garden History. Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) 2007, pp. 34-39.
2 The current owner, Staatsbosbeheer, announced a revitalisation of the Doolhof (the Dutch name for a maze and, though the maze itself has gone, still the name for the road running past it). It soon became clear that by revitalisation Staatsbosbeheer meant refurbishing the paths and adding some benches and more attractive plants to the worn-out bush the Doolhof had become.
3 The latter period is also mentioned in a recent publication on mazes and labyrinths: Fons Schaefers and Anne Miecke Backer, Doolhoven & Labyrinten in Nederland, Uitgeverij De Hef Publishers, 2007, p. 44 (under the alternative name: ‘Het Bosje’).
4 That name translates roughly as “Prospect of the country’s Prosperity”, probably because from this elevated spot -a whopping 15 meters above sea leavel!- on the island he had a good view at the tradeships from Amsterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen docking at the Rede van Texel), waiting for a favourable wind to sail out to the East Indies.
5 Doolhof: Tegen de Hoge Berg ligt een interressant loofbosje dat de Doolhof wordt genoemd. Het werd eind 1774 aangelegd door Cornelis Roepel of Ruepel, commissaris van de Amsterdamse Admiraliteit, die daarmee een lusthof voor zichzelf en zijn familie wilde creëren. De trap op het hoogste punt (15 meter boven de zeespiegel) van het bosje wordt ook wel de Zeven Pannekoeken genoemd. Het doolhof, zo genoemd naar de labyrintische dooreengevlochte slingerpaden valt onder beheer van de Stichting Natuurmonumenten en Staatsbosbeheer.

Public auction of Eikenrode cancelled

Michael Jackson’s Neverland and Loosdrecht’s Eikenrode would never have been linked on this blog if it weren’t for the fact that they have been sharing similar fates during the last few months. Both estates were put up to auction by their respective banks in recent months, and both estates were able to avoid that public sale at the last minute. The difference is that where one is world news -the possible auction of Neverland even received coverage by Dutch local regional press, news on the fate of Eikenrode never gained attention outside of the realm of the regional press -and this blog, ofcourse.

eikenrode_huisachtercrp.jpg

The main house of Eikenrode after the restoration. Both photo’s by GVB Architecten, 2003.

Eikenrode was to be publically sold last week, but a few days before the auction the owners, the municipality and the banks reached an agreement on how to go forward. The province of Noord-Holland brought all parties together to reach this solution, according to their press release on the matter. It seems there are no new agreements made between parties, nor is the process of transferring the grounds from the municipality to the current owner of the house completed. The bank, who threatened to sell the estate because it took the other parties ages to complete this transfer, must have been assured by all parties they would not lose money on this deal. This means that Martien Plasmeijer can proceed with his plans to gradually restore the estate and develop new ways to make money at Eikenrode.

Eikenrode was established in 1845 for the Hacke family, who lived on the estate until 1974. The design of both the house and the gardens is attributed to architect Johan David Zocher jr, but as far as I know this attribution is based on oral history, not on documentation. 1Attribution by H.M. van der Wijck, De Nederlandse Buitenplaats. Aspecten van ontwikkeling, bescherming en herstel, 1982, p.311. This information is maintained on the TUiN database, with the addition that the attribution is based on oral history. Archiwijzer says the garden and orangerie are indeed by Zocher, but not the house. Though it resembles Zocher’s later design of the house of Molenbosch in Zeist, according to them the architect of the main house of Eikenrode is Jan Streefkerk. Much of the original layout of the garden is still visible today. eikenrode-oranjerie2003.jpgIn recent years Plasmeijer restored the main house and ice-cellar. As soon as the transfer is completed, work on restoring the coach-house annex orangerie can begin. Plasmeijer is planning appartments for elderly people who need to be cared for (zorgappartementen) in this building, which was destroyed by fire last December.
Earlier photo’s (from 2003) show that this building was in a deplorable state even before the fire. The cause of the fire has never been established (or has not been made public). A short video of the fire can be found in this earlier post.

Note:

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Attribution by H.M. van der Wijck, De Nederlandse Buitenplaats. Aspecten van ontwikkeling, bescherming en herstel, 1982, p.311. This information is maintained on the TUiN database, with the addition that the attribution is based on oral history. Archiwijzer says the garden and orangerie are indeed by Zocher, but not the house. Though it resembles Zocher’s later design of the house of Molenbosch in Zeist, according to them the architect of the main house of Eikenrode is Jan Streefkerk.