In the 16th and 17th centuries, the strap and scroll ornament became quite popular. A fluid form, it frames a facade's top and resembles curled leather. The step gable, a nonclassical element resembling a small staircase (with varying numbers of steps and varying step heights), was used on many of the buildings you see as you walk along the canals today. Often, you find step gables of this period augmented by Renaissance features, such as vases and masks.
Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621), an architect who worked in Amsterdam at the height of the Renaissance, is known for using decorative, playful elements in a way that was practical to the structure. For instance, he combined hard yellow or white sandstone decorative features (like volutes, keystones, and masks) with soft red brick, creating a visually stimulating multicolored facade, while utilizing the sandstone as protection from rain erosion. Philips and Justus Vingboons were architects and brothers who worked in the Renaissance style; while walking along Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht, you'll see many of their buildings. With them, the medieval stepped gable gave way to a more ornate one with scrolled sides, decorative finials, and other features.
Many other 17th-century buildings have typically classical elements, such as pilasters, entablatures, and pediments. These details give a sense of order and balance and move away from de Keyser's playful Renaissance style. The classical pediment, often used as a protective element against the rain, was typically used to shield windows and to cap gable ends. During this time, a harder brown brick came replaced the red brick used in the 16th century.
Because classical elements tend to have straight lines and don't flow like the Renaissance elements did, facades shifted to a more boxed-in, central look that eventually grew into the raised-neck gable (a tall, narrow, rectangular gable). Fruits and flowers were used as ornamentation in the scrolls. Soon, the raised-neck gable gave way to the neck gable (which looks relatively similar, only shorter) with human and animal figures carved into the scrolls. Jacob van Campen (1595-1657), who built the elaborate Town Hall at the Dam, now the Royal Palace, was probably the single most important architect of Amsterdam architecture's classical period.
Around 1665, Adriaan Dortsman (1625-82), best known for his classic restrained Dutch style, began building homes with balconies and attics, leaving off the pilasters and festoons that adorned earlier facades. The emphasis had once again shifted, this time from decorated ornamentation to space utility and harmonization with structure.
A New School -- Between 1900 and 1940, various Amsterdam architects purveyed many different styles of architecture. One of these styles stands out above the others: the Amsterdam School, with Eduard Cuypers (nephew to P. J. H. Cuypers) at the helm, and P. L. Kramer, M. de Klerk, and J. M. van der Mey, all employed by Cuypers, as contributors. These architects succeeded in creating forms of brickwork that had existed only in earlier architects' fantasies. Their buildings are massive yet fluid, and feature decorations like stained glass, wrought iron, and corner towers.
