The plan for renovating the monumental building at 50 Witte de Withstraat was developed by the Rotterdam architectural firm Zandbelt Architecture & Urban Design. In its design, the façade of the building is opened up by installing four-and-a-half-meters tall windows, extending from the floor to the ceiling. The entrance will be revamped and the ground floor facilities will be renovated, with the consultation of Studio Miessen. Also, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art will start using a space on the ground floor on the street side.
Witte de With and TENT remain open to the public
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and TENT exhibitions and events remained open to the public. In December, TENT will be closed due to the rearrangement of the ground floor and the accompanying floor renovation. Witte de With is showing The Temptation of AA Bronson until 5 January 2014. TENT celebrates the reopening of its new exhibition spaces with a solo exhibition by the sculptor Anne Wenzel, The Opaque Palace.
The building at Witte de Withstraat 50 is a former girls’ school dating from 1875. It has been the home of Witte de With since 1990. Initially, Witte de With only rented the two top floors while the rest of the building was used by the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Rotterdam). In 1997, Witte de With acquired ownership of the building where TENT took up residence on the ground floor in 1999. Thanks to the generous support of the Rotterdam City Council, donations by Stichting Job Dura Fonds, OVG, Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht, the G.Ph. Verhagen-Stichting, Bouwfonds Cultuurfonds and a substantial investment by the institutes themselves, the renovations have started.