A new high-tech and very modern looking Eye Film Institute has begun to attract design buffs, tourists, and much needed positive attention to the once downtrodden area of Amsterdam. Set against the water, the building has already changed the area by bringing more artists and attention.

THE free commuter ferries leaving Central Station in Amsterdam and heading north across the IJ (pronounced Eye) harbor are invariably packed with local designers, food lovers and film buffs. They brace themselves against the cold wind, steady their bikes, and look expectantly toward a structure that resembles a shiny white spaceship.

That building is actually the Eye Film Institute (IJpromenade 1, 31-20-5891400; eyefilm.nl), Amsterdam’s latest architectural bauble. Designed by the Vienna-based firm Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, the film museum and archive opened in April in North Amsterdam, a large district that for decades was considered a grim no man’s land.

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