I'd broaden your scope a bit. From what I've seen, Rotterdam is a great city for working in architecture, whether you work for a big name or not.

West 8/Adriaan Geuze are hot these days and I'm sure the office is flooded with inquiries. (I've heard them called the 'best landscape architecture firm practicing right now' in more than one place.) And AG is juggling the practice and organization of the Rotterdam Biennale coming in May.

Just being in that city for a while, letting the culture's commitment to architecture, public space, sophisticated urban infrastructure/transit, and the arts soak into your system would be a great experience. Doesn't have to be at a star firm.

Keep us posted.

I agree with Steven, just being there will be enough.

Also, it is the Netherlands, so the average firm has a far more critical approach than the average American firm (although I couldn't comment on Canada 'cause I don't know). So working for the average Dutch office will still give you a great viewpoint that you will likely keep for your career as an LA.

Good luck, hope you get on with West 8...

Don't limit yourself to applying to only one office in Rotterdam, there are other landscape firms like Juurlink&Geluk, KAAP3 and -scape. Although I know that West8 is probably looking for people at the moment, so you might be lucky. Also, be aware that salaries in the Netherlands are very low compared to american standards. Cost of living in Rotterdam is however low, and it has an extremely close-knit community of architects, full of interesting people.

Jobs in Rotterddam can often be found on archined
For a list of Rotterdam offices choose Rotterdam for PLAATS and there's your list...

Thanks so much for all the info and the down to earth advice.
I'll definitely keep you posted - this is one of those 'dreams' that I can't let go of.

can you get by in rotterdam w. only english?

a former classmate went to netherlands for holiday and got a job with oma. as far as i know it was an english environment and she never really needed to learn any other languages (though it doesn't hurt).

all of the people i know from the netherlands speak amazingly perfect english. puts us north americans to shame, dennit?

yup.- but it's still good news!
Arch. Rev. ran an interesting little article on the discrepancies between US and Europe's climates for architecture, both in-office innovation and general society's reception, pointing out how europe remains the testing ground for architecture which in the US clients are hesitant to endorse-
reluctant to embrace styles which haven;t 'proven' themselves in europe, the states seem bound to remain 1 step behind - this is a a pity , and for architects, infuriating. Even gehry had to do bilbao bef. doing his sensational work in the us...
It would seem that as a result, american arch student's (eg. moi) are going to continue to want to go where it;s hot, leaving the us for europe ...
i almost wish i weren;t so delighted with the idea of getting a job in europe, because it would mean there were cool things happening here....

yeh C, i know what you mean.

N.America has some cool things happening but the most challenging work is going on in europe or elsewhere. some nice stuff here in japan as well but the best work tends to be about style more than really stirring things up.

Unfortunate that the states and Canada are so conservative and the architectural system in both countries so lame. Not much incentive to stay and work there if you can get work in london or Rotterdam...

Being a dutchmen, I'm quit amazed how you people overrate the dutch architectural scene, yes it was great in the nineties and the beginning of the millenium, but since the economy went downhill (and it's still struggling) a lot of avant-garde projects went bust. I think that a total of 80 to 90% of the architectural projects are just as generic as they are in the US. And the wages over here are just as bad.

Still Rotterdam is a great place to live and work (altough it's a a rough city), it's not to expensive and it's got the highest concentration of architectural firms in The Netherlands (there must over 200 firms)

.nl -
economy and a booming building industry is less what we admire than the commitment to an approach to architecture which recognizes that it's 2005. despite the notoriety of a few big names in the u.s., a good percentage of us are saddled with arguments against 'adding some architectural interest', i.e., decorate with traditional gew-gaws.

i noticed when i was in rotterdam (3 wks ago) that even many of the generic/fabric buildings there would be considered radical in our part of the world. there is so much concern here with fitting in and additions/modifications not 'looking like an add-on' that it's maddening. in kentucky in particular, if it's not a contemporary colonial, it's a hard sell.

oh, and the layering and sophistication of transit infrastructure - like the web of auto, bike, bus, tram and pedestrian along the westersingel and westblaak - is something we won't be seeing for a long time....

How can you not admire a healthy economy and a booming building industry? It let's us build our commited approach to architecture instead of leaving it just on paper. And it creates jobs, which is a nice side-effect

Talking about nice infra spaces, I hope you've seen the "tramtunnel" in The Hague by OMA and LAB-DA. It's the most beautifull metro tube in the world!

here is an interesting blog about the state of architecture in the netherlands. according to this guy, although it is highly concentrated with architects, very few are actually building there.

http://www.movinginplace.net/welkom2rdam/vlog/VLOG.v.02.html

and if you think the state of architecture in the u.s. is conservative and uninspiring, pretend for a moment that you are a landscape architect. we have NOTHING to be inspired about in north american. unless of course you enjoy nostalgia adn cutesy 'people places'. help.