New building for ministry of health, welfare and sports reaches highest point

Today, 27 March 1997, the new building that will house the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports officially reached its highest point. This building, named Castalia, is part of De Resident, a city centre project in The Hague developed by MAB.

Castalia was designed by American architect Michael Graves as based on a former government building, the Transitorium. Graves has transformed the original building by creating a double office tower with two steeply pitched roofs, a traditional façade, and double-height windows. Castalia’s height of 104 metres makes it the tallest building in The Hague. The building will be completed early 1998.

De Resident forms the heart of the Den Haag Nieuw Centrum (The Hague New Centre) and is being designed by a team of 10 architects from the Netherlands and other countries. By the year 2000, De Resident will consist of approximately 115,000 m² of office space, 320 residential units and more than 4,000 m² of shops. Being built next to Castalia is Helicon, a building designed by Dutch architect Sjoerd Soeters. Also being constructed by MAB/Bouwfonds in De Resident are the new office building for Zurich Verzekeringen, 3 parking garages with approximately 800 parking spaces, public spaces and courtyards. De Resident is located between the Central Station and The Hague’s new City Hall.

On 1 March 1996, the ownership of Castalia and Helicon was transferred to DESPA, a German investment fund, for approximately NLG 250 million. The Government Buildings Agency has taken out a long-term lease on both offices to accommodate the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports.

The construction of Castalia is being managed by Bouwcombinatie BAM-TBI Den Haag v.o.f.
Site management is being carried out by Grabowsky & Poort in The Hague.

Project developer MAB B.V. in The Hague is developing De Resident. Bouwfonds Financiering Vastgoed B.V., a subsidiary of Bouwfonds Hoevelaken, is financing De Resident project.

March 27, 1997