Officially the building is called "The Resident", but unofficially it has been nicknamed "The Tits" because it has two large triangular roofs on top.
It is the highest building in The Hague and a major landmark.
I'm sorry that this picture is so large, but I couldn't resist the view. You are looking west from the Central Station. You can see the "Binnenhof" (the original seat of the Dutch parliament), and the Ministry of Justice.
It was ridiculously easy to get inside. The building is still partially under construction and the doors on the lowest floor are open for anyone wishing to enter. I have been in three times.
The first time I saw a nicely dressed lady enter the courtyard of the building. Up to that moment I had thought that only workmen had access to the building. I found working lifts going to the top floor of the lower half of the building (8 floors). After searching around and checking all the exits from the fire-stairs I discovered that the 4-th floor connects the lower and the higher parts of the building. I walked through an unfinished computer room (only the raised floor had been installed, no cabling) and found the lifts to the higher part of the building. There are 6 lifts, but only one was operational at the time. There was a guard sitting in the lift, but he didn't question me. He explained that he sat all day in the lift to prevent the workmen from damaging it and to keep them from writing graffiti all over the lift-walls. He advised me to go to the 19th floor for the best view. The view is very nice. I didn't have my camera at that time so I decided to return another day.
Here you see the view to the south-east. The lighting is bad because the sun was shining from this direction. You can see the roof of the lower of the building, with the ornamental spikes. Also the question "How far can you look?" is answered. You can see Rijswijk (5 km), Delft (9 km) and Rotterdam (21 km). But we shall see later that you can look even further.
Some days later I returned with my camera. The guard in the lift recognized me and he understood that I simply had to take pictures of the view. After taking some pictures from the 19th floor I went up the fire stairs. The 19th floor is the last "normal" office floor. It has large windows, curtains, toilets and a nice carpet on the floor. The 20th floor is dark. It is the first floor inside the triangular roofs and it has no windows. When you go further up the fire stairs you enter the western roof (attic). It is a completely empty triangle, three floors high. There is only a metal spiral staircase leading three floors up to a roof-hatch.
During my visit a painter was working inside the attic. He showed me the door to the flat roof connecting the two triangles. This door was unlocked and you could walk over the roof to the door of the other (eastern) attic.
The eastern attic is full of air-conditioning machinery (large metal boxes with knobs and lights, insulated tubes). Unfortunately I didn't have a flashlight with me so I have no pictures of this place.
UPDATE
Today (18 August) I visited the place again and I was stopped by a guard who asked me for my badge. I said I was curious how the building was progressing and he told me I could apply for a guided tour. I didn't ask whether the guided tour included the roof.
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© 1998 Petr Kazil - 8 August 1998