Etikettarkiv: Burman

Builder, link in Turmalinen

Kvarteren Bergfästet, Smugglaren, Nordhem, Bergslänten, Djupedalen

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In episodes 269 to 273 we climb up and down the ridiculously hilly terrain in Olivedal.

Episode 269: kv Bergfästet

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 9 July 2022

The terrain in Olivedal is remarkably hilly, with ridges running circa north – south one after the other. On the zoning map from 1891, there are carefully drawn stairs, like the ones we find at Övre Majorsgatan outside the Good-Templars’ door. The first Swedish lodge of the IOGT was founded in 1879 here in Gothenburg. More stairs were planned, but then the motorcar arrived and had to be catered to with broad and smooth streets.

Episode 270: kv Smugglaren

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 9 July 2022

In Olivedal there is a sharp line between the older stone houses to the east and the 1960s houses to the west, up against Masthuggsbergen and Slottsskogen. It was originally a valley of landshövdingehus, often called Vega-town. According to Fredberg, the houses were not as drab and uniform as usual, but in the 1960s they all had to go to make way for progress in the form of concrete. Much-needed mod cons, yes, but it’s not a very interesting cityscape.

Episode 271: kv Nordhem

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 9 July 2022

The Nordhem School must have been really difficult to build, at the top of a hill with steep sides all around. The poor horses, having to lug all the brick and granite up the cobbled streets!

Episode 272: kv Bergslänten

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 11 July 2022

The Linnea Church is also a charity and an outreach for troubled teenagers, addicts and homeless people.

Episode 273: kv Djupedalen

District: Olivedal

Photo date: 12 July 2022

Foundations were obviously much better here than further south along Linnégatan, as the 1900-houses still remain. So we can imagine what the whole strip from Järntorget to Slottsskogen must have looked like when it was new, and with a bridle path running in the middle for posh people to ride up and down and cause copious amounts of dust to rise. Even the back street looks grand, compared to modern houses! (Here is a picture of what the area looked like even earlier.)

Kvarteren Rysåsen, Skansen, Batteriet, Kastellanen, Vaktposten, Murbräckan

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Episodes 255 to 259 explore the northern part of sub-district Kommendantsängen.

Episode 255: kv Rysåsen, kv Skansen

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 25 May 2022

This block contains much architectural history, from the dull late-1960s tenement to the delightful 1920s Classicism to elaborate 1890s woodwork (designed by O W Nilsson). But Fredberg describes an earlier, long-forgotten vista: that of itinerant Italians living in hovels next to rowdy rogues in huts clambering up the hill towards the fortress. His descriptions aren’t dissimilar from the camps of Romanian beggars that one can find all over the city nowadays. Even the racism and classism are the same.

Episode 256: kv Batteriet

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 25 May 2022

The plaster and iron-work in the western, circa-1900 half of this block contrasts with the more sober red brick facades of the 1930s and 1980s in the eastern half. Towards Skanstorget, the 1930s houses were designed by G Jacobsson and D Persson, and contained a cinema that was turned into a theatre dedicated to dance. I haven’t been able to find any info on the nice decorations on the 1980s house, but a three-room apartment there went for just over 5 and a half million a few months ago. That’s cheap!

Episode 257: kv Kastellanen

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 29 May 2022

The Olof Asklund Steam Bakery apparently was a runaway success, rapidly expanding and needing bigger and bigger premises. When this dedicated house in The Castellan was built in 1901, it employed 100 people and a promotional picture shows five tall chimneys belching black smoke over the neighbourhood. Twenty years later there were 200 employees and in the 1960s the company merged with another bread producer and moved to big industrial premises in Högsbo, under the new brand name Pååls, now Pågen. The street where the current factory stands is named after Olof Asklund.

Episode 258: kv Vaktposten

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 27 May 2022

Hans Hedlund’s house from 1899 was built by ”SJ:s Änke- och pupillkassa”, a rather nice name. And a nice house, well designed and robustly built – unlike many of the houses built today which need refurbishment immediately the scaffolding has been taken down. Ever since I walked around this block I’ve meant to visit the Purrfect Cat Café but it hasn’t happened yet.

Episode 259: kv Murbräckan

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 27 May 2022

At Linnégatan 48 the entire facade is clad with limestone, a rather exotic rock in Gothenburg. Ten years later, fashion had swung to local materials and granite became de rigueur for decorations. There are also many other types of rock in Gothenburg facades; here is a geological guide to them!

Kvarteren Amiralen, Barkassen, Styckjunkaren, Sergeanten, Fanbäraren, Hornblåsaren samt Järntorget

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In episodes 251 to 254 we come to the end of District Haga and take a closer look at the socialist history of Gothenburg.

Episode 251: kv Amiralen, kv Barkassen, Järntorget

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 May 2022

In the 1970s Gothenburg was a bastion of socialism, from serious social democrats to ravening revolutionaries. But that was actually a fairly late development, rising rapidly when ship-building and other heavy manufacture expanded in the early 1900s. Before that, Gothenburg was a city of merchants, with conservatives and liberals (in the economic sense) being by far the dominant political factions. In the late 1800s, though, workers’ gruops and parties emerged and made their HQ at the Iron Square.

The first HQ was built around 1900 and was quite pretty, but bigger premises were needed in the 1950s. The current newspaper (long since discontinued) house was built in 1957 and designed by Uppling & Fylking. But a decade earlier, Nils Einar Eriksson had designed the People’s House across the street in The Longboat, in clean and simple Modernist style. The new hotel colossus, designed by the Erséus bureau, looks frankly weird in the middle of it.

The Iron Square is named after the important iron scales that were moved to this area from the city centre in 1785. Gothenburg was the biggest export harbour for timber and iron in west Sweden and the scales is where quality control was performed. But the site of the current square was variously called Toll Square, Tree Square, Furniture Square, even Bierhalle Square, reflecting various businesses still more or less in place. In the 1920s it was given its current layout with the little houses designed by Hugo Jahnke and the big fountain by Tore Strindberg.

Episode 252: kv Styckjunkaren

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 May 2022

The big Louis Enders house fronting Järntorget hasn’t changed much since it was built. There have been bars and restaurants in it and other houses in the block since their inception, with bohemians and artists often frequenting them. Järntorget can be quite raucous in the nighttime. But I still haven’t found any explanations to Fredberg’s term ”tarachim entertainments”!

Episode 253: kv Sergeanten

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 May 2022

The Sergeant is dominated by the development along Linnégatan, which started in the late 1800s. Before then, the street area was drained by a creek called Djupedalsbäcken, which was rapidly hidden in a culvert. Soon, this turned out to be not a very good idea…

Episode 254: kv Fanbäraren, kv Hornblåsaren

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 May 2022

The last two blocks in district Haga are also part of the development along Linnégatan. The wooden houses ”at the back” along Landsvägsgatan were neglected, partly deliberately, to the point where they had to be condemned and were torn down in the 1980s to make way for modern housing. In fact, most of Linnégatan had to be torn down then, due to serious subsidence damage, but more on that later…

Kvarteren Kanonen, Kruthornet, Majoren, Kaptenen, Soldaten samt Skansberget

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In episodes 238 to 242 the focus is on oldey-timey fortifications, the Caponier and Fortress Kronan.

Episode 238: kv Kanonen

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 April 2022

Most of this block was re-developed in the 1980s but the quaint facades along Haga Nygata were preserved – much to the delight of all the cruise ship tourists who visit in summertime.

Episode 239: kv Kruthornet

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 April 2022

Sometimes people ask what houses I’ve looked at are my favourites. I usually answer it’s the ones with subtle surprises, that you don’t notice until you actually look closely at the facades. And the Abako-designed house comprising this whole block is a prime example of this. Yes, the Post-Modernist style is a violent break from the general 19th-century look of Haga, but it’s hard not to be delighted by it, so over the top. And then, if you step closer, you see the reliefs… Artist Pelle P adorned other facades too, like the Guldheden church in part 476 of this project.

Episode 240: kv Majoren

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Are libraries a thing of the past? I do believe so; listening to young people on the town who brag about not ever having read a book and being disgusted by the very idea, it seems easy-access knowledge is no longer wanted. Maybe AI is convenient and all that, but I think it’s fun to make and find out things myself. Anyway, the early users of this library here had no other options and made good use of the facilities.

Episode 241: kv Kaptenen

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

On a map you can see how narrow these north-south running blocks are, as they follow the line of the old caponier that connected fortress Kronan with the rest of Gothenburg in the olden days. Having heard the stories about people falling into the stagnant water here, I always thought a caponier was a sort of mini-moat. When it was eventually filled in, the land was only deemed suitable for poor-housing, which the Dickson Foundation snapped up in the 1870s before selling it to the Burmans. Might one suspect poor geotechnical conditions?

Episode 242: kv Soldaten, Skansberget

District: Haga

Photo date: 14 May 2022

The little square in Soldaten is the centre of Haga, where you might find market stalls, buskers and other events. In all seasons! But in October-November and January-February the Gothenburg weather is not amenable to outdoors activities with items that aren’t waterproof…

My memories of Skansen Kronan are rather sketchy, and involve the old military museum with slightly spooky mannequins dressed in 19th century uniforms, and waffles. The latter still remains, in the shape of a shed which serves pricey pastries that you really need after climbing all those stairs. Club Cosmos celebrated its 50th anniversary in the fortress, but that was before my time.

Kvarteren Karl XII, Utanverket, Bäcken, Slottsskogsledet

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Episodes 260 to 263 look at the engineering geology behind, or rather below, Kommendantsängen and Linnégatan. And an enigma: why is there an Illuminati sign in the sidewalk outside a small shop?

Episode 260: kv Karl XII

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

Looking at orthophotos of this block, you can see it is built as a single open courtyard instead of cluttered with courtside houses or several smaller courts, as in surrounding blocks. This was very progressive for its time. The 1920s in general seemed very progressive and forward-looking.

Episode 261: kv Utanverket

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

I wonder why there is an Illuminati sign in the sidewalk outside a small shop… First time I passed it I missed it: who looks down at the pavement when walking briskly along busy city streets? Maybe a medium operated here in the 1910s, or the shop was a front for one of the many secret societies? Marie Hermansson has written several entertaining detective books set in 1920s Gothenburg, maybe she could take up the story. Oh and by the way, the Asklund garage was designed by the F O Peterson firm.

Episode 262: kv Bäcken

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 4 June 2022

The Creek is of course named after Djupedalsbäcken, or Råttebäcken, that runs underneath it in a culvert. Geology students are often taken on local excursions to witness what happens when you ignore hydrogeology in areas dominated by postglacial clays: subsidence! Also, many of the hastily put up houses along Linnégatan in the late 1800s had really poor foundations that meant moisture was sucked up into the buildings which rotted from within… Hopefully the modern replacements from the 1980s and 90s were built with better foundations.

Episode 263: kv Slottsskogsledet

District: Kommendantsängen (part of district Olivedal)

Photo date: 6 June 2022

Kommendantsängen is still regulated by the zoning plan from 1891. On the map, one can see the original terrain and houses at that time, before development started. Rather quaint. Even the cholera cemetery is marked.

Kvarteren Enen, Idegranen, Lönnen, Furan

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Episodes 156 to 160 contemplate heavy development in the 1890s and the 1960s, around a steep hill.

Episode 156: kv Enen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 17 April 2021

There are so many beautiful old houses preserved in this block. They are all described in fine detail in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, page 318ff. One of them, at Haga Kyrkogata 28, has even featured in a major Swedish television series a few years back. Or so I understand, I never watched it myself. The TV show also borrowed 1950s and 60s type radios and television sets from the splendid radio museum on Hisingen.

The narration for this episode is pretty complete but here are some more facts. The farm Anneberg can be seen on an old photo in the City Museum database. The Fogelberg Park was originally called The Viewpoint but was quickly encircled by tall houses and later trees. There is no view to be had anymore, especially in the leafy season. Fogelberg was a sculptor who created the statue of Gustav II Adolf at the main square.

Episode 157: kv Idegranen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 25 April 2021

The Old Gothenburg site has an entry on the Society for Schools for Young Children. The rest of the block is also covered in the link for episode 156.

Episode 158: kv Lönnen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 25 April 2021

The posh villas along Föreningsgatan and the general history of the area is also covered by the Old Gothenburg site (and of course in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”). In the days when they were built, it was considered a rather long slog to reach the inner city where the banks and shops were. A trip to Örgryte was a full day affair!

Since I can’t read maps properly I accidentally included Södra Viktoriagatan 42 which is a separate block called Järneken (The Holly), and part of city block Pilträdet (The Willow) that was redeveloped in the 1960s. Sorry.

Episode 159: kv Furan part 1

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 and 24 April 2021

The Jugend or Art Nouveau villa at Viktoriagatan 17 can be considered a part of the Officials’ area around Föreningsgatan.

Episode 160: kv Furan part 2

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 April 2021

In 2023 I could take a good look at the back of Viktoriagatan 15 A/B, and even the inside! Because the rock-face behind the houses was in dire need of reinforcements, including rope work for scaling off loose stones and boulders, clearing away trees whose roots break away blocks, and installing rock bolts. The housing association representative was very interested and I lectured rather condescendingly at him: he turned out to be professor emeritus of structural geology…

The sad story of Gegerfelt and the speculators is told in full in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” and more narration is added at the Old Gothenburg site. CRA Fredberg also writes about the Eduard Magnus memorial that looked much prettier than the current institutional building from the 1950s.

The nude streetlight has recently been discussed in one of the Old Gothenburg fora. It is apparently a completely private light, put up in 1971 by the former owner of Vasagatan 7. And the city allowed it!

Kvarteren Vik, Nyköpingshus, Rydboholm, Avenboken, Björken

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Episodes 141 to 145 slog around long and lavishly decorated upper-middle class facades at Vasaplatsen.

Episode 141: kv Vik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

The Baptist Tabernacle, the Ladies’ School for Girls, pastry chefs and a celebrated man of letters. This block has it all! Including a full narration about design history.

Episode 142: kv Nyköpingshus and Vasaplatsen

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 5 December 2020

Fredberg and ”Vasaplatsen-Lorensberg” (e.g. page 218) write much about the history and the architecture in this area.

As you venture further from the inner city and further in time from the 1880s, lions on facades start to thin out and eventually peter out entirely. In Vasastaden they look very similar, probably because many of the decorations were mass-produced elements that could be added onto any new house. So the facades look unique and spectacular but really they are all much the same. Like teenagers…

One of the victims of the terrible tram crash of 1992 was Åsa Walldén, who had just finished writing a 16-page pamphlet about architecture in Kungsladugård. I’ve made heavy use of it in part 384 ff of this series.

Episode 143: kv Rydboholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 1 November 2020

On the south edge of Kungsparken is a string of smaller blocks meant to resemble the so-called patrician villas that dotted the park before the stone city of Vasastaden-Lorensberg was planned and realised. Most of these small blocks are designed as one entity, but some consist of two properties. In this block, the western half was built by the H Börjesson company in 1897 and the eastern half by O A Burman. But the facades for both halves were designed by Carl Crispin Peterson, son of Adrian. The style is described as Tudor Neo-Gothic.

Episode 144: kv Avenboken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 19 December 2020

On page 269 of ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, Staffan Sedenmalm writes about the so-called park blocks and the general design history of the area:

Under 1890-talets senare hälft fylldes äntligen den gapande luckan i stenstadsfronten mot parkbältet. Tio år efter tillkomsten av Wijkska villan – den enda privatbostaden i denna märkliga svit av nio kvarter – blev nämligen de fyra sista parkkvarteren, två på vardera sidan av Vasaplatsen, uppförda. Tre kvarter bebyggdes med två samgestaltade bostadshus vardera, två av kvarteren för olika byggherrar. Det blev en skarp kontrast mellan de äldre kvarterens aristokratiska arkitektur och de nya med ett borgerligare kynne. Mot 1870- och 80-talens nyrenässans, formad av mått- och formprinciper som övertagits från de gamla mästarnas läroböcker och översatt från två à tre palatsvåningar i naturlig sten till hyrespalatsens fyra våningar i stenimiterande putsornering, ställdes nu de fem våningar höga tegelborgarna med sin enklare vertikala indelning och en fasadbehandling som likställde våningarna i rang. Stil- och formmässigt fick liksom tidigare varje parkkvarter sin egen karaktär. Till detta bidrog tegelsorternas rikt varierade profilprogram och kulörer med möjligheter att kombinera samstämda toner. Ett verksamt uttrycksmedel i dessa tegelfasader, rikare på kulör än plastisk form, utgjorde järnbalkongernas organiskt sirliga konstsmide. Karaktäristiskt för 1890-talets parkkvarter blev de isärdragna fasaderna på kvarterens baksida – således exponerades bakgårdarnas påvra fasader mot Storgatan ovanför en stängselmur i fasadens arkitektur med en port till respektive gård. Såväl gårdsfasader som brandgavlar fick – med undantag av ett kvarter tillhörigt en inflytelserik organisation – en enkel beklädnad av grov spritputs.

Staffan Sedenmalm, ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg. KULTURMILJÖ AV RIKSINTRESSE I GÖTEBORG. Planering och byggande utanför vallgraven 1850-1900”, Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland 2016:43

Episode 145: kv Björken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 23 January 2021

Opposite city block Rydboholm is another equally long block that takes a very long time to explore and document. Several big-name architects and builders contributed to the splendid facades towards Vasaplatsen and Vasagatan, as listed in the narration and the block’s entry in the blog about Old Gothenburg.

In the very early 1980s I went to yoga classes in a flat at Vasaplatsen 3. It was really big, some six rooms (and a tiny bathroom) with plaster decorations around the ceilings and all. It must have been really expensive even at that time. Since then, almost all flats around Vasaplatsen seem to have been converted to offices and clinics and dentists’.

Kvarteren Turmalinen, Agaten, Ametisten, Karneolen

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Episodes 127 to 130 lecture a bit on mineralogy and continue the tour through Jugend, National Romanticism and 1920s Classicism.

Episode 127: kv Turmalinen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

National Romanticism was a Swedish style that was popular in the early 1900s. It wanted to emulate the styles from when Sweden was great, Gustaf Vasa’s 1500s and the mid-1600s, and also romanticised Sweden’s agrarian heritage. The result was imposing red-brick buildings with decorations in the form of brick patterns, granite sculptures and reliefs, and copper details. It was also popular to build wooden houses, often dark and heavy. A prime example of this style is the Masthugget Church. We see a bit of this on the east side of this block.

On the other side of the block is Södra Vägen 32 which was designed by Hjalmar Zetterström in lightest Jugend style. He also designed Skånegatan 31 a couple of years later, tilting towards National Romanticism. The other Jugend houses along Södra Vägen were created by builder O A Burman and the splendid backdrop to Korsvägen by Robert Anderson Arelius in 1911. Jugend was a continental style, often with a focus on crafts and botanic shapes. On the continent it can be quite extreme, Art Nouveau, while in Sweden it can verge towards National Romanticism as our kind of crafts are heavy and dark, not light and airy.

Episode 128: kv Agaten

District: Heden

Photo date: 21March 2021

We continue with lots of Jugend built around 1910. Berzeliigatan 11 was designed by Frans Frise while numbers 13 to 17 came from the pen of Hjalmar Zetterström. Södra Vägen 24, however, was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen. Phew, so many names!

Episode 129: kv Ametisten

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The middle part of this block was built later than the ends towards Engelbrektsgatan and Berzeliigatan. By that time, Lilienberg’s plans had come into force and National Romanticism was in full swing – which is very much in evidence along Wadmansgatan and Hedåsgatan.

Episode 130: kv Karneolen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The first houses south of Heden were built in the 1890s, with imposing facades towards the city. The corner house at Södra Vägen 2 was particularly grand, built by Abraham Pehrsson and designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen.

Fredberg writes about Vassnöden and the Jamaica Inn. The style is lively, a bit sentimental, and with the old Swedish grammar that all young fantasy writers fail so miserably at mastering.