I believe I entirely wore through a pair of shoes on a recent trip to Amsterdam. Subsequently we’re feelin pretty good about The Modern List Amsterdam (21KB download). One of the advantages of the long, cold, gray winters seems to be a well developed collection of modern interiors. In addition to being a modern design epicenter of the world, Amsterdam has an abundance of uber-cool restaurants, lounges and cafes. Here are some highlights:
The Lloyd Hotel provides inspiring lodging, food and drink all in a handsome remodel of a historic emigrant’s hotel. The architects did a remarkable job of designing in the new without getting in the way of the traditional.
Restaurant 11 sits atop the Stedelijk Museum and is quite possibly the coolest place to be in town. It’s so cool they may not even be able to seat you for lunch. Have a drink anyway and take in the view.
Walem is a nicely designed café/bar behind an original Gerrit Rietveld façade. The interior has some nice Rietveld touches like the three-tube pendant lamp.
A centrally located hot spot for dinner is Brasserie Harkema – it’s well designed, fun, colorful and full of beautiful people.
Wine bars are becoming more popular in Amsterdam – we recommend dropping by Vyne for a glass or two prior to dinner a few doors down at Envy.
Check out the Mansion for after dinner drinks with the cool kids.
ARCAM is a good place to check in – the building should be on every designer’s tour, they also have good architectural resources.
The Anne Frank House is a very well-crafted building nestled into a traditional context.
Bimhuis is Amsterdam’s new Jazz concert hall. It’s been termed by the designers as the box in the box in the box. Amongst all the boxes it has a phenomenal view of the harbor and of course a quaint, well designed café.
The Bimhuis is accessed via a super hot inverted cable foot-bridge
The Moevenpick Hotel was designed by Dutch hotshots Claus en Kaan.
The bridge tour is probably more fun in the summer time but the Borneo Sporenburg Bridge is interesting enough that it just might merit a frost-biting trip out to the harbor.
You’d be delinquent to miss Droog design – it’s situated on the design saturated Staalstraat (the Nijhof & Lee design bookshop is just a few doors down).
For contact with the introverted locals we recommend getting a few items on the agenda through Like a Local. They arrange boat tours, dinners and architectural tours.
As always let us know what we missed…