Changing public space

six museums in the area, which were spatially united by the redesigned Museumpark in 1991.
The second thematic area was the Maritime triangle (II). New developments within this area
had to focus on maritime recreation and tourism, resulting in the relocation of the maritime
museum to the Leuvehaven in 1986 and the arrival of Tropicana (a subtropical swimming pool
and beauty/party centre) in 1988. The third thematic area was the City (III). The main focus
of this area should be on offices, shopping, and entertainment. In more detail, the Weena and
Coolsingel were designated as location for new high-rise buildings for offices and housing, while
the Lijnbaan would become the main shopping area. Since its opening in 1953, the Lijnbaan had
been revolutionary as one of the first car-free shopping streets. However, it deteriorated in the
course of time. There was no unity between buildings, the shopping facades were not maintained,
public space was cluttered, and the pavement was in a bad condition. The area needed a new
impulse. The Schouwburgplein was identified as a culture and entertainment cluster. The square
also required redevelopment to enable and strengthen these functions.
By 1993, some of the developments proposed in the 1985 Binnenstadsplan had been
realised. The Museumpark was under redevelopment, Tropicana had been built, and new office
and housing buildings were constructed on the Weena and Coolsingel. However, other plans
were not carried out including the redevelopment of the Schouwburgplein and Lijnbaan. The
Schouwburgplein was suffering from an abundance of plans and lack of decisiveness (Section
6.2.2). The redevelopment of the Lijnbaan turned out to be very complicated due to many
property owners who were unwilling to co-operate. The municipality was not able to force these
owners and could only partially improve the Lijnbaan by upgrading the public space. In the
meantime, new development plans had been adopted for the area south of the city centre on the
other side of the river Maas, in an area named Kop van Zuid. These plans needed to be tuned
to the plans for the city centre, because they could be competing with regard to housing and
office developments. To revive the planned projects and incorporate the new developments at the
Kop van Zuid, the new plan Binnenstad Rotterdam was presented in 1993. It outlined four main
objectives (dS+V et al., 1993: 11):
1. Identification of three main clusters in the city centre (Beursplein/Oude Haven/
Schouwburgplein) and two at the Kop van Zuid (Entrepot building/Erasmus Bridge
landing), in which functions needed to be combined in order to stimulate funshopping,
recreation, culture, and tourism
2. Improvement of the quantity and quality of housing in the city centre
3. Improvement of the quality of the city centre and a coherent management of public space
4. Selective growth of offices in the city centre
For this research, the first and third objectives are most relevant. The plan designated the
Schouwburgplein as one of the main clusters in the city. The square was redeveloped with an
emphasis on cultural and entertainment functions by combining the city theatre and music and
congress centre De Doelen with new facilities such as a multiplex cinema, cafés, and restaurants.
It reopened in 1997. The emphasis within the Beursplein cluster was on shopping. As described
above, the local government first designated the Lijnbaan as main shopping area. However, the
municipality shifted its focus from the Lijnbaan to the Beursplein area as main retail location.
The construction of the Beurstraverse as sunken shopping street was finished in 1996. The
objective of the third cluster near the Oudehaven was to remove the elevated train tracks and
create a large square named the Binnenrotte to host the weekly market, attract tourists, and
improve housing and public transport by constructing a train and metro hub (Station Blaakplein).
103