Nederlands Fotomuseum

The Nederlands Fotomuseum previously occupied Las Palmas, a former Holland America Line workshop building on the Wilhelminapier, from 2007 until its move to the Santos warehouse in 2026. Built in 1953 as an industrial repair building for the shipping line, Las Palmas was completely restored by Benthem Crouwel Architects, who kept the building's raw, functional character — long open floors and a plain, robust brick and concrete shell built for ships' machinery rather than art. The renovation's signature move sat on top: a glass penthouse office that appears to float roughly three meters above the roofline, held up on thin steel columns, with unobstructed views across the Maashaven and Rijnhaven.

Inside, the building held a mix of uses alongside the photography museum — a media design school, an events hall, a restaurant, and office space — making it as much a working piece of the Wilhelminapier's redevelopment as a cultural venue. Like its neighbors on the pier, Hotel New York and De Rotterdam, Las Palmas took a structure built for the harbor's industrial and shipping past and gave it new life, its bare concrete and steel left legible rather than disguised.