A’DAM Lookout occupies the crown of Amsterdam Noord’s former Shell tower, a 1970s landmark set diagonally to the IJ. Its conversion into a public-facing tower kept Arthur Staal’s concrete structure while adding a sky deck above the redeveloping Overhoeks waterfront.
Quick facts
Arthur Staal designed the Shell office tower that opened in 1971 as Toren Overhoeks.
A’DAM Tower’s 2012–2016 transformation retained its main concrete tower and added a public observation platform.
A’DAM LOOKOUT’s operator describes its indoor and outdoor sky deck as 100 metres above Amsterdam.
Get directions to A'DAM Lookout Tower. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
Audio guide
Listen to this place’s guide.
Guide
A’DAM Lookout sits on a tower that seems to turn its back on the usual city grid. From the north bank of the IJ, its angled body rises above the waterfront; from the deck, Amsterdam’s historic center lies across the water, while the wide horizon opens toward the port and low Dutch landscape. That view is also a way to read the building’s past.
Continue exploring
Discover the full story
Keep reading with a travel pass and explore every full guide and tour.
UpgradeMore places in Amsterdam
EYE Film Museum
Across the IJ from Amsterdam Centraal, EYE Film Museum brings Dutch film heritage into public view through exhibitions, screenings and a living archive. Its faceted white building, designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, frames the river as part of the experience and anchors a cultural des
Amsterdam Centraal Station
Amsterdam Centraal occupies Station Island in the IJ, where the historic centre meets the waterfront. Pierre Cuypers and A.L. van Gendt designed its monumental 1889 gateway, built on reclaimed islands and thousands of piles. Today the station remains a busy link between rail, city and harbour.
In’t Aepjen
In ’t Aepjen is a café at Zeedijk 1, inside a rare surviving sixteenth-century timber-framed Amsterdam house. Records, later shopfronts and a debated monkey legend reveal how the building’s use and story changed over time.
De Poezenboot
De Poezenboot is an Amsterdam cat sanctuary aboard a houseboat on the Singel. Founded by Henriette van Weelde after she began taking in stray cats in 1966, it provides veterinary care and refuge, including long-term shelter for cats not suited to rehoming. Volunteers and donations sustain its work.
Brouwersgracht
Brouwersgracht runs along the northern edge of the Jordaan, where Amsterdam’s old canal network met routes toward the IJ. Its name recalls brewing, while warehouses and Herenmarkt traces reveal the canal’s wider life as a freight route and neighbourhood workplace.
Our Lord in the Attic Museum
A seventeenth-century Catholic church fills the joined upper floors of a canal house and two rear houses. Built by merchant Jan Hartman, it preserves the history of Amsterdam’s tolerated house churches and the community that worshipped here.