With the removal of harbour operations to the mouth of the River Meuse, the port in the city of Rotterdam lost all importance. This allowed a new urban district with housing and offices to be developed on the former harbour area, however. In addition, the construction of the Erasmus Bridge created a direct link between the new development and the centre of Rotterdam. The architects were commissioned to draw up a concept for a high-rise housing block to the south of the Wilhelmina Pier, on the north side of which tower structures already existed. Today, at the end of the pier from where ocean liners of the Holland-America line once sailed to New York and where warehouses with names like “New Orleans” and “Havana” stood, the tallest housing block in the Netherlands has been erected. In recollection of the long-standing traditions of this area, the 152-metre-high tower is called Montevideo. The building is a composition of stacked, overlapping volumes and makes reference to the classical high-rise developments of the 1920s and 30s with their brick facades and their many loggias and roof terraces.