Jo Coenen

[3] Coenen's professional career started off with relatively small scale architectural projects, the majority of which were in the south of the Netherlands.

[4] Other larger projects designed by Coenen include The Dutch Architecture Institute (originally called the Het Nieuwe Instituut) in the Museumpark of Rotterdam (1988–1993), the Smalle Haven area in Eindhoven (which includes the construction of the Vestedatoren, 2000–2006) en the Innovatoren in Venlo (2009-2011).

Coenen's work is described as being ‘friendly monumentalism[7] and as "literal and figurative heavyweights compared to the 'hip' design trends, ironic distance and radical experiments" of other Dutch architects.

Both in his urban planning projects and his time as rijksbouwmeester, he has demonstrated a strong preference for Belgian, Swiss and souther European architects.

This proposed a complete tunnelling of the railway lines - the potential exploitation of more ground-level land meant that the project was financially more sustainable.