Astoria (Amsterdam)

Astoria is a Jugendstil office building at Keizersgracht 174–176 in Amsterdam, built in 1904–1905 as the headquarters of the Eerste Hollandsche Levensverzekerings Bank insurance company.

The building, at the intersection of the Keizersgracht and Leliegracht canals, served as the international headquarters of Greenpeace for 15 years.

Baanders and Gerrit van Arkel, two architects who designed many buildings in Amsterdam in a sobre version of Jugendstil which later came to be known as Nieuwe Kunst ("New Art").

The Astoria building has a copper-plated roof with a small tower and decorative cast-iron fencing with EHLB (for Eerste Hollandsche Levensverzekerings Bank) in gold lettering.

The mosaic on the Keizersgracht facade shows a guardian angel (intended to be symbolic of the insurance company) and two other figures.

The Astoria building in Amsterdam
The Keizersgracht facade