Demolition of Amsterdam Central’s iconic bicycle garage to start on Monday

De fietsflat, the 25-year-old bicycle parking garage at Amsterdam Central, will finally be demolished starting next Monday, the municipality announced. All materials from the teardown will be transported away by boat.

During the initial two weeks, the site will be fenced off and loose elements taken down. Work will pause over the Christmas holidays. Mid-January will see the start of the main demolition, beginning with the metal superstructure, then the concrete substructure, and finally the foundation. The project is expected to be finished by early February. Efforts will be made to reuse as much as possible. Plans are underway to repurpose the site of the former bike garage.

Initially opened as a temporary solution to the lack of bicycle storage facilities in 1999, the three-level bike parking facility accommodated 2,500 bicycles and was a popular spot for tourists to photograph. It was initially only meant to be used for five years.

The garage lost its permit in 2016, but because of the shortage of parking, the municipality granted the building a temporary approval. The facility closed in 2023, it had became unnecessary after two large underground bike parks were constructed at the station. Another reason cited was that the facility had become a source of nuisance, with many homeless people gathering near the garage, which led to large amounts of littering nearby.

A plan to sell it to Schiphol fell through because moving the garage, which is on concrete pillars, is too complex and costly.