Magna Plaza
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| Magna Plaza, former Amsterdam Main Post Office building | |
|---|---|
 The old Main Post Office Amsterdam, later Magna Plaza, viewed from the South, 2016. | |
 Interactive map of the Magna Plaza, former Amsterdam Main Post Office building area | |
| General information | |
| Location | Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 182, 1012 SJ Amsterdam. Corner Raadhuisstraat. |
| Year built | 1895-1899 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor area | 5,589 m² basement, ground floor, 1st and 2nd floor. The top floor 1,420 m² office space[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Cornelis Hendrik Peters (1847-1932) |
The former Amsterdam Main Post Office, now the Magna Plaza shopping centre, is a monumental building located at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 182 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was built in 1895–1899 in neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance style. The building has been a rijksmonument (Dutch national monument) since 9 July 1974, and is part of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites.[2]
The Amsterdam Post Office was built in the period 1895–1899, designed by Cornelis Peters (Cornelis Hendrik Peters). It replaced the Royal Post Office of 1854, which was designed by Frederik Willem Conrad (1800-1870) and Cornelis Outshoorn, and served as a gallery shortly before being taken down in 1897.
Exterior
The exterior is heavily decorated with polychromatic brick with details in dressed stone, including framing for all windows and doors. Across the roof edges are a large number of dormers, each with their own crow-stepped gable. Due to the pear shaped crowns on top of the towers the building is colloquially named ‘Perenburg’ (English: pearburg).
Interior
The building's interior consists of a central hall with galleries on two upper floors, surrounded by arcades and crowned by a sunroof. The public function of the building was limited to the ground floor, while the rest of the building was only accessible to personnel of the PTT, then the national post, telegraph and telephone agency. In 1987, the PTT announced that it intended to vacate the building and it was sold the next year for 7.5 million guilders (about 3.2 million euro) to Larmag, a Swedish real estate developer, who intended to repurpose the building as a luxury shopping centre. Maintaining and optimally using the monumental building was a main criterion. The construction started in February 1991. The exterior work was mostly limited to cleaning, repair and restoration of the facades. The interior of the building was completely rebuilt, maintaining the carrying structures and decorative elements.
