Location Croeselaan

Until 2014, there was a six-lane road for car traffic in two directions. Since then, the Croeselaan near Jaarbeursplein has been interrupted, or cut through, and cars can no longer drive through. Four of the six lanes were removed to make room for more greenery, cyclists and pedestrians. Subsequently, the Croeselaan was gradually redeveloped into a sustainable park avenue. Rainwater, for example, no longer flows directly into the sewer, but ends up in infiltration tanks under the road surface,. That way there is enough water in the soil for the more than 100 extra trees that have been planted. This has brought a lot of peace to the area.

The elongated park is full of statues from the collection of the municipality of Utrecht and the Rabobank. And one statue of Utrecht Central Museum, which is changed every once in a while. Some people may still remember three statues from more than 15 years ago: The Journey, The Meeting and The Stronghold. These three statues originally stood in front of the entrances to the three seventies style offices between Jaarbeursplein and Sijpesteijnkade.

If you leave the Croeselaan and walk in the direction of the Moreelsebrug, you pass between two buildings: the large Rabobank head office on the right and The Green House restaurant on the left. On the left you will also see the transparent government office ‘De Knoop’ behind restaurant The Green House. That office is actually the circularly renovated and expanded old Lieutenant General Knoop military base. The previous version of this building contained a bat colony. During the renovation, it was ensured that the bats could also be housed in the new version of the complex. Just look at the upper facade part of the building. There you see three stripes in a grey facade panel. It looks a bit like morse code. You can also see the same morse code on the railway side of the office complex. These are holes through which bats can crawl the hollow spaces behind the facade panels, made especially for them.