The wait has ended for the revamped Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The world’s first publicly accessible art storage depot officially opened to the public over the weekend after a five-year-long construction period led by MVRDV. 

Visitors will now be able to interact with over 151,000 pieces of art housed by the 167,000-square-foot facility, which also features a Birch-lined rooftop garden and viewable conservation areas giving them behind-the-scenes views of the museum’s staff working across five distinct climate-controlled zones. 

The unique, 1,664-mirrored-panel bowl design made waves online and has been among the most highly-anticipated museum projects in recent memory since being announced in 2013. The project was initiated by the museum after repeated flooding of its previous storage facility prompted officials to reimagine how they might be able to use an upgrade to expand the relatively small amount of its collection that was viewable to the public at a given time. 

This feature puts the Museum Boijmans in league with other institutions like the Broad and Whitney museums which also give their visitors direct contact with their inner-workings and professional staff, an element the Dutch directors feel is vital to the success of their public program. 

“A good house is of vital importance. If you don't have one, you are already playing in the second division,” directors Jarel Ex and Ina Klaassen said in a joint statement. “With the Depot, the amazing collection finally gets its own architecture. Only then do you see how the functioning of the art storage impacts the museum. Visitors can now see for themselves the love, care, and attention to detail with which each individual work of art is preserved for future generations. The museum, the public, and Rotterdammers are going to have a lot of fun.”

Indeed, the fun to be had comes thanks to a panoptic view attained by visitors who enter a unique entrance designed by artist John Körmeling. A series of crisscrossed staircases takes visitors the length of the building through the visible storage and eventually the rooftop, where they can enjoy surrounding views of the city and Museumpark below. Winy Maas has done a brilliant job with the design brief’s mandate to make the building as large and inviting as possible working within a relatively small imprint. The final product is something he feels adds a new life to a 172-year-old institution.

“As an architect, I hope that visitors will soon enjoy the interior, the rooftop forest, and the experience of being in direct contact with the art without the mediation of a curator.” the MVRDV founder said in a statement. “Our ambition was to give the Museumpark a new dimension, and to bring different target groups, from schoolchildren to Feyenoord fans, into contact with the Boijmans collection in an innovative way.”

The opening ceremony was performed by the Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander. The depot is open to the public between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm. Ticketing information can be found here.