Rem Koolhaas on OMA’s Rotterdam beginnings, Boompjes and Amex Rem Koolhaas on OMA’s Rotterdam beginnings, Boompjes and Amex We caught up with Rem Koolhaas to discuss OMA’s beginnings, setting up shop in Rotterdam, and his new design for the Amex Centurion ‘Art Card’, which was inspired by Boompjes, OMA’s very first commission in the Dutch port city in the early 1980s The silk-screen triptych for the Boompjes project Rotterdam and OMA have long been intertwined. The Dutch port city has been home to the celebrated architecture practice for over four decades now, and it is also co-founder Rem Koolhaas’ birthplace. Still, the architect didn’t spend a lot of time there until the 1980s. Instead, he followed a more international trajectory in his early years. His childhood was mostly divided between Amsterdam and Jakarta, and after graduating from the Architectural Association in London, he moved to New York to attend Cornell. His book,