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Westergasfabriek Case Study: Interviews
Local government officials played a critical role in the cleanup and redevelopment of Westergasfabriek. They orchestrated meetings with the different community groups to understand their ideas and desires about the long-term park plan, as well as minimize their concerns about the temporary cultural events. Local government officials were also instrumental in working with Amsterdam's environment department, encouraging them to design a clean-up plan that would allow reuse to go forward without compromising human health and the environment. Ruud Grondel served as Chairman of the Westerpark District Council during the key developmental stages of Westergasfabriek and Westerpark. Here are excerpts from our interview with Ruud.
Q: What are the important roles that you have played and continue to play in the cleanup and development of Westergas and Westerpark?
I see myself as a "linch-pin" between the Project Manager (Evert), the civil servants, the community, the neighborhood activists, among my fellow aldermen, and with the central city government. My goal is to keep the process moving forward and ensure that we reach a good decision. Not just a good decision in my opinion, but one that has a large level of acceptance among the community and majority support among aldermen on the district council. Success has many fathers-thus, it is important to have everyone's ideas included in the final decision.
Q: From your perspective, what are the key ingredients for Westergasfabriek's success? What advice would you give other local government officials attempting to redevelop old industrial plants?
- Create an open and inclusive decision-making process; involve the neighborhood people early in the process-do not wait until you or your staff have already started to create your own plans.
- Keep an open mind; do not jump to conclusions too soon.
- Go out and find partners to lend you a hand; contaminated properties present many complex issues.
- Hire the best project manager you can find; someone who understands the project itself and the people. You need a project manager who has a strong sense of ownership and can provide thorough oversight of these complex problems.
- Recognize the different aspects of the redevelopment process: What are you going to do?
- Recognize the importance and effectiveness of redeveloping the site in phases. Start with the general concepts and dreams of what it should be. Work with the neighborhood and get their ideas included before you make specific plans. As you collaborate to realize/ implement the ideas and concepts, you will inevitably bump into practical problems. Some plans will disappoint some people, but if they participate in the process from the outset, they will understand that we cannot include everyone's dream. We must move forward one step at a time.
Q: How is the future of Westergas and Westerpark shaping up?
Let me describe what we have done and what we will be doing from three different paths. First, we do not have much legal authority or power to do very much with the environmental pollution. We must work with the environmental ministries. We can influence their decisions and push them to a certain degree, but we will ultimately need to live with whatever decisions they make.
The buildings still present the most difficulty. We have direct control over many of these issues and thus devote most of our time in this area. We are still negotiating with a possible private partner to repair and manage the buildings and their cultural activities. We hope to make this decision soon.
The permanent park plan is well on its way. We now have an architect working with the community. She now has the torch to run with the park planning process. We will support her and help her work with the community to make good decisions. Sometime this year (1998) we hope to make the definite decision of how much money we can allocate for the park development. We have asked her to design a plan that is flexible so that we can add elements in the future. Overall, I am optimistic about the future of Westerpark and Westergasfabriek. My objective was to get it moving forward. We have made the necessary major decisions to turn these ideas into reality.
As Project Manager since 1994, Evert represents the soul and vision of Westergasfabriek. He has been instrumental in forging alliances with the community and creating the framework for temporary cultural uses and the development of a permanent park plan. Given his years of experience working for the central city government of Amsterdam and now the Westerpark District Council, Evert's insights about the cleanup and redevelopment of Westergasfabriek can easily provide guidance to local government managers in the United States and abroad. What follows are excerpts from our interview with Evert.
Q: Why do you manage this project, with all of its complexities, headaches, and heartaches?
Many public and private project managers would be envious of this opportunity to develop ideas and implement them. I relish the chance to help bring a new vision for the use of these former industrial buildings at Westergasfabriek.
Q: How do you respond to the comments from first-time visitors, "Oh, we could never do that in our country!" Some may claim that citizens in Amsterdam and in Holland are more interested in arts and culture, plus the government gives them generous subsidies, so Westergas has unique advantages that make it difficult to replicate.
When people say they cannot do this or do that, I challenge them and say why not? Yes, it may be true that Westergas has some unique elements that might make it difficult to replicate in other cities, not only abroad, but even other cities right here in Holland. Yet, Westergas represents something more than just the reuse of old industrial buildings and a gas storage tank for cultural events-it is about a concept, a vision, a resolve to do things simply because they should be done. Thus, we don't emphasize all of the potential limitations, but focus on the possibilities!
As far as the cultural groups and activities that call Westergas home, very few receive any sort of subsidy from the governments of Amsterdam or Holland to do their work. These artisans, musicians, actors, television producers, and set designers seek out places at Westergas because they want to be here. They want to part of something special.
Plus, we have serious competition with the many cultural activities and theaters in Amsterdam. Thus, it is critical for us at Westergas to provide a unique atmosphere, a unique setting such as the gas holder, for people to come together and meet, have fun, and see a show. In many ways our job is more difficult because we are near a city such as Amsterdam with its many cultural venues.
Q: What are the different roles that you and your staff have played and continue to play in the cleanup and development of Westergas?
The most important role is building relationships and trust with the community groups and citizens. Ideas come from many different sources. I say to the members of the neighborhood that all ideas are valuable to us. We want you to help design this project. They are the ones who live nearby and who will use it. You must develop a certain level of mutual respect with the neighborhood. This did not happen overnight. In the early stages we did not have their trust. But, we made clear to them that if we could work together, we could find the money and deliver them a park. I see it as my role to break down the wall between the bureaucrats and the neighborhood.
It is impossible to do a project on the scale of Westergas on your own. You must have partners and create relationships with the community during the early days when you are discussing the preliminary concepts and laying the groundwork for your vision. You also need important alliances with your local government authority, especially those who are responsible or closest to the project.
Q: What advice would you give other managers involved in redeveloping old industrial plants? Given the experience at Westergas, what are your key elements of success?
Communication: Ninety percent of our work is communication. Looking over the past few years of our work here, communication has been most of our job: communication with the public and the neighborhood, communication with the government officials, especially at the district level, communication and marketing within the cultural and entertainment communities, and internal communication. You must have a good team to help you in such a complex endeavor.
Vision: We have been working on a vision and a concept for several years. It is essential that you have a concept about the future-not what is there, but what will happen!
A Diversified Project Team: You need a good mix of people who work for you on the project, with a balance of experiences and expertise. People with a broad understanding of the project tasks, but also an appreciation of the neighborhood dynamics. A multi-disciplinary approach is important; you don't want people who know only one issue. They have to look at themselves as normal, intelligent people. They have to be able to talk about different things. For example, I want to know if the engineer is a jogger and where he walks or runs. What does he need? How does he get there? This perspective connects the expert with the needs of the everyday person.
Members of my project team also need strong people skills and must feel comfortable communicating and listening at neighborhood meetings, where tempers may flare and frustrations surface, as well as being champions for our project in other forums. I did not select people with strong technical backgrounds in engineering or landscape architecture. Given the task of designing or building a park, most people would start with a landscape architect. Instead I brought together a team with a broad understanding of the issues, history, communication, public relations, etc. This diverse team, can work with the experts that are necessary to successfully design and implement such a project.
A Collaborative Process: How you get there is often more important than the destination itself. Process is often more important than the end-product. Our philosophy is that we must coordinate all of these different issues together: the cleanup, the cultural activities and the long-term plan for the park. Plus, we must all work together, the pressure groups, the citizens, the government officials, etc. The quality of the process is very important to the quality of the product.
Adopt a Phased Approach: Think about the temporary uses for these abandoned buildings that might lead to the development of a permanent use for the property. One of the reasons why we did not call for a plan with a permanent use is we didn't know what we wanted; nor did we have the funding or community support behind a specific plan. We needed to do something with the buildings immediately after the city received them from the former public utility company to avoid squatters, who would take it over given the serious housing shortage in Amsterdam. Instead of waiting until completion of the formal park planning process, we decided to temporarily use the buildings for cultural activities. Always remember that for every problem, there are solutions, maybe only short-term or temporary approaches, maybe only in phases, but solutions nonetheless!
Q: What is the scope of the Westergas Project?
Our project focuses on the more than the physical improvement of the buildings or the development of the park; it is also the urban environment and all of the interactions between people and their environment.
Always remember that a park such a Westergas should be consistent with the use of the buildings, whatever their uses might be someday in the future. While our main goal is to make a park, it is much more than that. Because of the buildings we must also consider the preservation of the industrial architecture and make different types of space available for diverse and successful cultural events. Westergas has really three elements: (1) The Park; (2) the Buildings; and (3) The Park Management Plan.
Q: What about using contaminated properties for parks?
Using former industrial properties for parks is the new frontier in brownfields development, especially in older, urban communities with few large tracts of land and few available sites for parks, recreation, and cultural events. Remember, the whole brownfields issue is how to use space, so why don't we start to use the space within the cities. In Europe the problem is very important given our density. In many of our cities, the old industrial sites are the "only" available open spaces. So, if these industrial sites are used to make a park, they raise the quality of life and make life more comfortable for the urban residents.
Q: What about the level of acceptance in using parks for cultural activities as opposed to open or just green spaces?
For the past twenty years, environmentalists have been blaming industry for pollution. But their lives, as well as ours, wouldn't be possible without the products produced by some of these same industries. Today, the green activists here are starting to see not only the negative aspects of industry but also positive aspects of our industrial heritage of the last 100 years, like architectural design. Industrial buildings do have something to say about our industrial heritage and our way of life.
This slight and gradual shift in attitude is good not only for industry, but also for the community as a whole. Both the industry and the community suffer greatly when large former industrial tracts are fenced and allowed to remain idle for many years. Today in Holland and in Amsterdam, we are seeing more of a balanced perspective compared to where it was, say fifteen years ago, when government demanded that everything be completely cleaned and that industry must pay.
Q: As you see it, what is the future direction for the reuse of old industrial facilities, such as Westergasfabriek?
From my point of view, when a community or a city asks what it can do with these old relics from our industrial past, they have three basic choices: (1) demolish, (2) maintain, or (3) revitalize. These three choices mirror our experience here at Westergas. Virtually any urban redevelopment effort includes these three options:
(1) Demolish and rebuild is the easiest. Let's just start all over. This choice probably applies to over ninety percent of the projects in the United States. Here in Amsterdam it was not much different. When we wanted wider streets, we demolished the houses and filled in the canal with no recognition of the buildings' value and its history. We started to turn away from this option in the 1970s as more and more people protested over the demolition of historical buildings.
(2) From this stage, we moved towards maintenance. How to maintain what you already have? We now realize that we do not have to demolish these places. We can leave a neighborhood and its important structures intact. This is what happened with us at Westergas. Funny enough, the neighborhood said to demolish all of the buildings and make a park, believing that fewer buildings equaled more park. But, we found out that these old industrial buildings can also attract people-a very critical element for any park! We also found out that reuse is very difficult. Thus, we had to develop a maintenance plan for the buildings. The temporary use helped us to do this.
(3) We are now starting to focus on revitalizing neighborhoods in Holland. We are starting to think about the social-economic elements in the reuse. What are people going to do with these old buildings in the neighborhoods? Can we bring back work spaces? Can we bring back jobs? Can we help improve the overall quality of life in these urban environments? Can we give them pride in their neighborhood? So, at this time our governments are talking about new "Big City" policies which do not demolish and rebuild or maintain, but are looking at brings energy into our urban areas -- policies that generate a spin off effect for people to work and live better. You also see the presence of this third phase going on with IBA at Emscher Park in Germany, in London, Bilbao, and Naples.
How can we change the demolition and reuse pattern? These social-economic issues are always very difficult, and architects and engineers aren't always trained to look at things at this way. It will take time to change the old way of doing things. You must do something about making our urban spaces more responsible. Demolition is no longer the solution. Instead, how are we going to bring life to it?
Q: What about the future of Westergas?
Our experience mirrors the three phases of urban redevelopment. After nearly having the buildings demolished, we decided to do short-term, interim leases to avoid squatters and also help preserve the buildings. They were not all listed as historical structures at the time. Squatters were a real possibility as they had been looking to use the buildings for the past 10 years. We started before the utility company formally transferred ownership to the district council in 1992. It was our hope that we could find tenants who would be willing to pay rent. The buildings were not in great shape, but we didn't have a choice. Our plan was to begin gradually.
Next came our connection with the cultural events. We hired Liesbeth Jansen as our property manager for cultural activities. She gave the property "soul." The very first projects involved Dutch TV. We did a small level of building repairs. We thought it would take half a year, but the long term tenants didn't come easily or quickly. We decided to locate our project team at Westergas, so we made our project and the temporary uses fit together.
Although we have staged many successful events and increased occupancy, we realize that we need the help of private partners to permanently sustain Westergasfabriek. We are now building a new initiative that will have a private developer oversee the repairs and cultural activities. We have also received a grant of 3 million Guilders as part of the new "Big City" policy to renovate the gas holder-install a new heating system, toilets, and electricity, but leave the space as open as possible. These renovations will help us attract more and different events for the gasholder. Our experiment with temporary cultural uses has brought us new information about the reuse possibilities-car shows, commercials, stage, opera, dance, disco, management conferences, fashion shows, etc. Our goal is to bring a certain atmosphere to the Westergas-no sex, no drugs, but we will still have rock-n-roll!