Once the freight docks of the Holland-America Line, Kop van Zuid is now Rotterdam's most concentrated stretch of contemporary high-rise — Rem Koolhaas's De Rotterdam, Norman Foster's World Port Center, Renzo Piano's KPN Tower with its leaning facade, and the Hotel New York in the converted shipping line headquarters. The walk over the Erasmusbrug from the north bank, with the towers rising in front, is the city's archetypal arrival photograph.
Beyond the towers, the area has the Fenix Food Factory, the Nederlands Fotomuseum (in the old grain silo), the cruise terminal where Cunard liners still berth, and the Wilhelminapier promenade along the river. Kop van Zuid also marks where many of Rotterdam's Turkish and Moroccan immigrants settled in the 1960s — the streets behind the towers, especially around the Maashaven, are some of the city's most diverse food and shopping districts.