We know, we did a double-take too — where Rem Koolhaas had to go all the way to Beijing to erect the conjoined towers affectionately known as “big pants,” Amsterdam-based architects Arons en Gelauff built their spectacular Pontsteiger building on their home city’s waterfront. The brief was to maximize the space given to the most useful parts of the building — the upper floors, for the views, and the lower floors, for their interface with the city — and minimize what’s in between. And rather than give the whole thing over to residents, the developers reserved enough space for twenty-five rooms’ worth of travelers: the Hotel Pontsteiger. Dutch design doesn’t get much more modern than this, with its raw concrete ceilings and columns, its floor-to-ceiling windows, and its white-on-white décor. It’s warmed by earth-toned carpets or parquet flooring, as well as some lively contemporary art. Bathrooms come with walk-in rain showers, and the junior suites and suites add eye-catching freestanding bathtubs. Small as it is, the hotel makes do with just one food-and-beverage venue, the multi-use all-day Cafe Pontsteiger, which is as well suited to dinner and drinks as it is to a work day with coffee and a laptop.