New premises for Argo

On Sunday 2 June, the new building for the student rowing club Argo was ceremonially opened with a generous dose of Rhine water. The project cost half a million euros, took six years to prepare and one year to build. The rowing club was desperately in need of new premises, say renovation committee members Annemarie Rietman and Lenny de Jaeger. ‘The heating system in the old building barely functioned and the window frames were so rotten they were nearly falling out.’ Demolition work began after last year’s AID. Which meant the rowers had hardly any home of their own for the rest of the year. The committee sat in a site hut and the rowers ate in the boat shed. That period of slumming it was worth it, says Annemarie: ‘Everything is bigger now. We have more showers, more floor space and a bigger bar.’ De Jaeger: ‘The best bit in my opinion is the view; we have a lot more windows overlooking the Rhine.’ But they still had to make some concessions. They never got the planned top floor and the internal walls are of cheap wooden boards. ‘We had to cut costs somewhere so we had to make choices,’ explains Annemarie. ‘We are not interested in a luxury ambience; the important thing in the end is that it’s functional.’