Entrepôt B.M. Spiers & Son — Anvers

Warehouse in a sober, functional ("zakelijk") Art Deco style, designed in 1924 by the architect Jan Jacobs for the firm B.M. Spiers & Son, fruit importers and merchants; the works were carried out by the contractor J. Van Riel & Ed. Ceurvorst, forerunner of Van Riel & Van den Bergh. Specialised in importing oranges, the firm had been importing bananas from the Antilles since 1912, and the new warehouse had a ripening installation for this purpose, the cellar serving as a "cave à bananes". According to the inventory, the warehouse is representative of the "zakelijk" Art Deco that Jacobs developed in the 1920s. On a reinforced-concrete frame, the façade of five bays and four storeys, including a slate pseudo-mansard, combines red brick for the upper part with stone-imitation render for the ground floor; the composition emphasises the central axis of the entrance and stair hall, whose upper part forms a curved bay rising to the cornice, and the entrance is flanked there by two carriage gates. The wooden entrance door, the ironwork and the boot scraper survive; the warehouse is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.