Crossover office and housing complex almost complete

The 120 social rented apartments in Crossover include 60 for first-timer students and 60 for refugees with residence permits. In addition, there will be a further ten owner-occupied apartments in the complex. A tour of one of the six residential floors shows us how much progress has been made on construction recently: the apartments look almost ready and just need the finishing work to be done. Each apartment is around 27 sq. m. inside, but features everything you need. A bathroom, a kitchen area, nice large windows with a lot of natural daylight. ‘We still have the galleries to paint and the utilities to install’, says Spaargaren. As we walk across one of the galleries, we encounter some workers installing cables into the ducting in the ceiling. ‘Those ducts are for Ziggo and the electric. Water will also be here added later.’

Careful thought has been put into the façade of Crossover. First of all in terms of aesthetics: the bricks, made from recycled waste, have been laid in such a way that they are slightly tiered, creating an attractive relief. ‘That’s called Brazilian bond’, explains Spaargaren. Because a large part of the façade runs parallel to the A10, there also needed to be a solution for the noise. ‘For this reason, the windows on the A10 side have been made extra thick and don’t open’, says Spaargaren. He then walks into one of the apartments after opening a wooden hatch next to the front door. ‘Everything has been carefully considered. Look, with these hatches, it’s still possible to ventilate the flat.’

The apartments on the A10 are based around the courtyard areas, that will soon serve as green patios. Spaargaren: ‘The base is already in place. On top of that, we’ll add a fabric sheet, substrate and it will of course ultimately be planted up.’ The residential tower is not conventionally constructed, but protrudes in various places. This provides further space to create rooftop gardens on top of the tiered sections, which the residents of the complex will ultimately be able to access.

In order to access the office tower, we have to return outside. Although the ground floor of Crossover – with space for communal amenities and hospitality/catering – connects the two sections to each other, it will not be possible to reach the office tower from the residential tower or vice-versa. To some extent it feels as if we are entering a completely different building: the ground floor of this tower, metres in height, has an almost completely glass façade and the entrance has been tiled with stylish natural stone. ‘And this takes us into the hospitality and catering section.’ Spaargaren guides us towards a large space, most of which is located on the A10 side. ‘453 square metres, to be exact. This section has not been let yet, but I can imagine you could do something spectacular with it.’

Finally, we take the lift to the top floor – there are nine floors in the office tower – in order to enjoy the beautiful views. On one side, you can see the high-rise buildings of Zuidas, and on the other you have a view all the way from Rivierenbuurt to the Rembrandt Tower at Amstel station. Every floor also has its own terrace, complete with planting. ‘This top floor is more or less completed, because we actually worked from the top down’, explains Spaargaren. ‘We’re now working on the lowest floors. We’re doing the finishing work on the ceilings and installing steel window frames and doors.’

In the upcoming period, the contractor will be doing the finishing work and landscaping the outdoor areas. The City of Amsterdam is landscaping the public space around the building. In addition to the now familiar green strips alongside the buildings, the area next to the Crossover entrance will also boast a front square area, the green entrance to the neighbourhood. This area will be completed in the spring. Crossover is scheduled for completion in May 2023. The apartments are expected to follow in July 2023.