Witteveen+Bos moves into new office in Rotterdam

Mayor Aboutaleb opens new Witteveen+Bos office 

Rotterdam mayor Aboutaleb opened the new office of engineering consultancy Witteveen+Bos at Blaak 16 in Rotterdam on 3 April 2019. This city is an important international home for the expertise of Witteveen+Bos in high water safety, climate adaptation through water management, ports and port design. National and international projects originate and are developed in Rotterdam, such as Maasvlakte II, the APMT terminal, and the Cargo Transport route for the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. By moving into the new office, Witteveen+Bos anticipate the growing number of employees and increasing demand for sustainable solutions.

Witteveen+Bos works on approximately 4,000 projects in the field of water, infrastructure, environment and construction all over the world and has 21 offices worldwide. The Rotterdam office is the centre of expertise with respect to deltas, dykes, coasts and rivers. The office is headed by Marinus Aalberts – guest lecturer at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and a member of the Rotterdam Economic Partners Network – and is located at Blaak 16, in the heart of the international financial centre of Rotterdam. The location is excellent accessibile by public transport and by car for employees and clients. Its located near Europe’s largest port and industrial area, and therefore it is a strategically perfect location for Witteveen+Bos to grow further and continue its operations for and with the Rotterdam region, nationally and internationally.   

Working with impact

‘Engineering work is a wonderful instrument for solving societal issues. It allows us, for instance, to contribute to a better living environment for everybody. This means sustainable solutions for society, customer value for our clients,and talent development opportunities for our employees,’ says Stephan van der Biezen, since 2017 the director of Witteveen+Bos. ‘When we were looking for a suitabel office location, Rotterdam was chosen for strategic reasons. Today’s societal challenges require modernisation and innovation. To achieve this we need cooperation and a different way of thinking. The choice for Rotterdam is obvious: it is an enterprising city with good educational opportunities, it is a city where many of our clients are located, and it has a high-quality knowledge infrastructure. Characteristic for our Rotterdam company culture is that everybody participates on an equal footing, from intern to site manager, in an amicable and hospitable atmosphere. Many (international) students graduated at Witteveen+Bos in Rotterdam. Some of them decided to stay. Others hold dear memories of the time they spent with us and take their knowledge across the world to new employers.’

Sustainable collaboration

In the past few years, Witteveen+Bos has worked, in collaboration with the Port of Rotterdam Authority, on developing an Offshore Centre in Maasvlakte II. This offshore hub accommodates suppliers and constructors for marine wind power and companies that are active in dismantling oil and gas rigs. Commissioned by project organisation PUMA, Witteveen+Bos has made a major contribution to developing Maasvlakte II as a civil engineering project. Outside the Netherlands, there are some great projects where collaboration is central as well: together with the Indonesian research institute for water, the municipality of Semarang, the International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE) in Delft, and the water board (Hoogheemraadschap) of Schieland and Krimpenerwaard. Witteveen+Bos has designed a polder and founded a water board for the city of Semarang. Semarang is facing increasing soil subsidence. Meanwhile, the polder has been realised, and consequently the water management and living conditions in this area of approximately 85,000 people are improving. ‘With our (Rotterdam regional) stakeholders we want to contribute to societal, ecological and economic progress at regional, national and international levels,’ Aalberts explains.

Sustainable office

Blaak 16, a building that dates back to the 1970s, has recently been completely renovated. The building is a showpiece of how to turn an old office into a sustainable, innovative office. The social added value is in the sustainable nature of redevelopment, such as façade insulation, LED lighting, and heating and cooling by means of a heat and cold storage system. The building has a BREEAM Excellent sustainability score and a WELL GOLD certificate issued by the Well Building Institute.

Are you curious about what the new office looks like? Take a look below!