Greening Aert van Nes

Aert van Nesstraat is a rather stony street in the center of Rotterdam. There are some interesting buildings: the pre-war Atlanta hotel and some monuments from the post-war reconstruction era like the Lijnbaan and the Bank Mees and Hope. And okay, a few architectural blunders from the seventies: the parking garage of the Bijenkorf and the so-called Rotterdam Building.

But what’s especially remarkable is the total absence of green. Admittedly, the western part of the road runs along one of the Lijnbaan courts. But in the section between Lijnbaan and Coolsingel there is not a tree, not a bush, not a clump of grass to be found.

Museum

While the rest of the city has become noticably greener over the last few years, in the Aert van Nesstraat time stands still, which is in this case not a quality. Is it the intention that this becomes a kind of museum street, a late-twentieth-century style room? When in a few years also Binnenrotte and Coolsingel have been completely refurbished and embellished, is this the place where one can see what once the whole center of Rotterdam looked like? Concrete pavers and askew 30 x 30 pavement? A terrifying example of what has been?

Make over

So I have given Aert van Nes a virtual makeover and turned it into a green street. Also because I wanted to try some techniques in 3ds Max. But of course, especially since a few trees, some benches and new pavement really would not hurt. It might look something like this: