As a schoolgirl, Else was the creative type. She dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, drew, painted and wrote poetry. After some hesitation about going to art school, she decided to study art history in Amsterdam, specialising in architectural history. Her studies took her to places including New York, Chicago, Rome and Delft. Through an internship at Arcam, she found a job with Amsterdam’s Department of Spatial Planning while she was still a student. Before long, she was working on its new website and writing and taking photographs for the internal newsletter.
After graduating, she found a job at Arcam, where she also met Rein Jansma, a member of the programme council. She then joined Atelier ZeinstravanderPol, now Dok architecten, where she was responsible for publicity. Alongside this, she continued working as a freelance editor. When the economic crisis hit architecture hard, and affected her own career as well, she contributed, among other things, to research laboratories for young architects set up by the then Chief Government Architect. This resulted in a website, publications and exhibitions.
“I ended up at ZJA in a rather wonderful way. I had room to take on a new assignment, and a friend of mine was temporarily living on a houseboat in Durgerdam, which I now look out over every day from my desk. One day, Rein and Kadir, his neighbour on Binnenkant, moored here in a small boat and had to cross her boat to get ashore. They got talking, and Rein mentioned that he was looking for someone to handle publicity at ZJA. Well, my friend said, I may know someone…”
When Else is not working, joining in with her children’s school craft projects or standing on the sidelines of the football pitch, where her youngest child dreams of a professional career, she looks forward to having time again to pick up her paintbrushes, dust off her piano and saxophone, and create a roof garden.