The “Rijksmuseum” in Amsterdam is one of the most important 19th century monumental buildings in The Netherlands. The showpiece of the museum is the world famous The Night Watch by Rembrandt. Presently the building is being renovated in order to meet the modern standards for international museums. The design of the renovation has been drawn by Cruz y Ortiz from Sevilla. The constructive design is being carried out by ARCADIS in cooperation with CRUX Engineering and WARECO for the assessment of the geotechnical and hydrological implications of the project. The most striking feature in the new design is a semi-underground square of approximately 3000 m2 in between the existing monumental building. This square is situated in the existing court yards and will serve as main entrance to the museum. The geotechnical design calculations are carried out by CRUX using the Finite Element program PLAXIS. The calculations are part of the risk assessment strategy in order to predict and judge the influence of ground
deformations due to the excavations on the surrounding building. Intensive monitoring is used to control the deformations of the structure and the sheet pile walls during the construction work.