# Are there any nice places to live in Rotterdam?



## nauru

I lived in the Netherlands for a while, and when I visited Rotterdam I was quite shocked at how ugly/unpleasant the city was compared to all the other Dutch cities and towns. 

I didn't see every single neighbourhood so it could have just been my bad luck, but I was in the "tourist" areas I think, and really just saw a lot of cheaply constructed buildings and slabs of concrete all over the place. And "modern" architecture... aka out of place and/or hideous. 

As I recall there was the harbour which was a bit nicer than other areas, but still -- would love to see some links to the decent looking parts of town. Thanks!


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## Wytske

Rotterdam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nice read about Rotterdam and also explains why it has a lot of modern architecture. 

If you are looking for a neighbourhood to live, well that's a bit hard to say. I do not know what your livestyle is, would you like to live in the city or do you prefer more quiet? I believe oude noorden, blijdorp and liskwartier are nice to live in. But i haven't been there in over 15 years so don't take my word on it. And If you're not really thrilled about living in Rotterdam, maybe it's better to look a bit further. Delft is very nice, it's a small city and you have Brielle also a very small town. 

Good luck.


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## Ti_

I share your opinion Nauru regarding Rotterdam. It's not the best option to live if you are used to more authentic, old Dutch towns. Reason of this is historic: the WOII bombings destroyed the Rotterdam city and resulted in the fact that the majority of the buildings are 40yrs old. That's the gray, old feeling in many parts.

Indeed, Delft is beautiful to live in, has a great town center and offers lots of cultural possibilities. You might also want to look at 'De Kop van Zuid', which is a new development area.


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## nauru

Cool. 

Delft looks really nice on Google street view. 

I'm aware that Rotterdam was destroyed in the war, but it still baffles me how the architectural plans for most of the buildings in that city were ever approved. The least offensive part of the city seems to be the financial district, with its standard skyscrapers and uncongested streets.

The appearance of the city could be greatly improved if the following buildings were demolished immediately:


























Call it what you will; "modern", "avant-garde", "unique"... these structures are *absolutely hideous* through and through. It seems like over 50% of the buildings in Rotterdam were designed by 1st year architecture students and constructed primarily with whatever metallic materials from could be salvaged from the heaps of discarded Ikea products sitting in the six nearest landfills.

I am hoping someone will tell me I am totally wrong and that actually I only saw the worst parts of Rotterdam, and that the rest is actually quite nice looking. And then point me to the appropriate street view links on google maps.


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