Etikettarkiv: Neo-Gothic

Style, https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkitektur_i_G%C3%B6teborg

Kvarteren Häggen, Hasseln, Högskolan, Örebrohus, Trollenäs

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Episodes 166 to 170 stroll around the Vasa Park.

Episode 166: kv Häggen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 16 May 2021

Who designed Edvard Svensson’s imposing corner house at Aschebergsgatan 1? There is a discussion on page 189 in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”. Sedenmalm is rather dismissive of the ”small builders” who had worked their way up constructing landshövdingehus. The styles are variously Neo-Renaissance, as was popular at the time. The Old Gothenburg site also collates the entries about this block in that paper – quite handy. And CRA Fredberg offers lively vignettes about life and times in the general area.

Episode 167: kv Hasseln

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 22 May 2021

When the old farm Brantdala, Steep Dale, had to give way to modern development in 1910, the area was planned by Albert Lilienberg. He put his mark on large parts of the then-city and although he was rather reviled by the following modernists, he has in later years become something of a celebrity, it seems. Books and articles mention him often.

As the area is very hilly, it had been too difficult to build on it until now, when dynamite made everything so much easier. The Domesticity house Föreningsgatan 32 was built in 1911, in a sort of Jugend / National Romanticism mix. Björner Hedlund designed it together with his father Hans. The northwest corner of the block was built a few years later and by that time fashions had shifted radically towards 1920s Classicism.

Episode 168: kv Högskolan and Vasaparken

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 27 February 2021

The old university building is listed but still in use, for representation and administrative offices. I’ve attended a couple of public lectures there, one by an adventurer who described his expedition to the Nazca geoglyphs. It was like being transported back in time a hundred years, when explorers toured the lecture circuits to finance their new expeditions! Amundsen, Hedin, Shackleton spring to mind.

The Vasa Park and its convoluted gestation is described in all my sources, a popular subject. Photos of small boys on sleds tobogganing down the steep terrain are obligatory.

Episode 169: kv Örebrohus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

The blocks around what became the Vasa Park were built around 1890 to 1900. The posh new inhabitants must have disliked the shanty town between them intensely. Likewise the other shanty town to the north, Flygarns Haga. Luckily, the authorities soon had them ”moved along” and the first wave of gentrification in Gothenburg was completed.

Örebrohus is Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic rohbau, but the younger houses are starting to look at the interesting new style called Jugend.

Episode 170: kv Trollenäs

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

Here is another block built and designed by firms that had started out making landshövdingehus. By now they had made enough money to spend on lavish decorations for their Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic facades, as described on page 284 in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”.

Instead of brick and plaster, they could spend on limestone, granite and sandstone. Two members of SGU, the Swedish Geological Survey, recently wrote an excursion guide to the geology of Gothenburg cladding.

Kvarteren Furan, Granen, Linden, Aspen, Sälgen

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Episodes 161 to 165 witness the sprouting of tenement buildings, schools and scandalettes in circa 1890.

Episode 161: kv Furan part 3

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 April 2021

What is a ”tomte”, plural ”tomtar”? In American, it is usually translated as ”elf”, especially for small tomtar that help Santa Claus or Father Christmas. ”Gnome” is another term used, commonly for the garden variety. But the more original type in Sweden is the farm tomte: a small entity looking after the farm and helping the family, if they behave courteously. They were a staple of children’s faritytales. Later, this kind of tomte became conflated with the Christmas character, Jultomten, who is basically Father Christmas/Santa Claus. But before Jultomten, the main yuletide creature was the Christmas Billygoat, still remembered as a Christmas ornament made of straw.

On the house fronting Vasagatan 11, Thorvald Rasmussen, brother of one of the architects, painted several tomtar being industrious, as well as other fairytale creatures. The house is a sort of German Neo-Renaissance Alpen-style, quite at odds with anything else in Gothenburg. When it was built, this was still an area with large villas and it fitted in quite well. Even the taller residential building behind it, built a few years earlier for the whole Hedlund family, didn’t clash as much with the genteel surroundings. But a few years later, the villas gave way to stone colossi…

From my tolkienist friends, I learn that the Odd Fellows are still going strong, as are all the other old orders too. One would have thought the social democratic system that has pervaded Swedish society since the 1930s would have stamped out such activities – but the social democratic party can, if you want to, be seen as a great big lodge itself!

Episode 162: kv Granen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

When I first started on this series in early 2020, it was just for my own personal enjoyment and maybe to show my hometown to some lexxian and tolkienist friends on social media. Just a bit of fun. I added some normal music, without narration. Boom! the youtube copyright algorithms struck! So I decided to make my own soundtracks, it being difficult to schedule recordings with friends who are actually good at making music. And I started narrating more intensely, to mask the bad soundtracks. Of course, the narration soon spiralled out of control, and for this long block I have included pretty much all the text I could find in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” and the block entry in the Old Gothenburg blog.

Regarding the farms that many of the new 1800s and 1900s blocks were put up on, there is an informative paper (in Swedish) that can be found in the city museum catalogue, with a map of the general area of this episode on page 29. There are many more potentially interesting papers in the catalogue, with the tag ”kulturmiljörapport”.

Episode 163: kv Linden

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 24 April 2021

When my grandmother went to school here in the late 1910s and early 1920s, all the big stone houses around it had already been built. She described her walk to school from the family cottage on the edge of town, passing horses, crossing still un-built areas and describing various characters along the way. But in 1889 the area was still semi-rural, with intense exploitation just around the corner.

The girls’ school itself is described by both CRA Fredberg and the Old Gothenburg site (and of course in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, page 174).

Episode 164: kv Aspen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 22 May 2021

Water pipes, bowls courts, farms, bandits, shops and tenants – the history of this block is quite rich! Once the farm, the inn and the shacks had gone, stone houses were put up around 1890. At the northern and western sides, the builders/designers were H & J Börjesson, Nathan Persson, Hedström & Svensson and C B Andersson. The rest of the block had to await new planning from Albert Lilienberg in 1910. The eastern part was built up along the steep street in 1912, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen and Zetterström & Jonsson. The south end wasn’t completed until the late 1910s. So we can study the architectural fashions over 30 years: French, German and Italian Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Jugend, National Romanticism and the precursor to 1920s Classicism.

Episode 165: kv Sälgen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

CRA Fredberg devotes almost a whole chapter to this school. Apparently, there was a scandalette over the architectural contract, involving the Hedlund family: S A made sure his nephew Hans won it. Björner son of Hans designed the extensions that were added in 1912. As Björner also did with Hans’s library building in 1926. What a family saga!

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 Boken, Alen, Husaren samt Hagakyrkan och Gamla Stadsbiblioteket

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Episodes 151 to 155 explore some of the many schools located in the west part of Vasastaden.

Episode 151: kv Boken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 28 March 2021

Here is a block devoted to mind and spirit: two schools, two orders, a place of worship and a charitable foundation. The Hertz and Kjellberg houses, the oldest ones, were designed by Frans Jacob Heilborn and built by P J Rapp. Storgatan 1 was built by J J Lundström soon after. Along Bellmansgatan, the middle properties were bought up by Nils Andersson’s building company and the subsequent houses, including the Rudebeck school, were designed by Adrian Peterson in the early 1870s.

My cousin went to the Rudebeck school and it is still going strong. Back in the 1980s, so-called free schools were unusual and only for the very posh. In the 1990s and especially the noughties, Sweden decided to totally overhaul its education system and let the market forces run schools: freedom and competition should make everything better for everyone. So today free schools is the new norm and can be found in almost every block, especially in Vasastaden.

Episode 152: kv Alen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 28 March 2021

This was once a two-in-one park block like the ones to the east of it. Adrian Peterson designed the western half in 1872 for A E Broddelius, and Victor von Gegerfelt copied the designs for the eastern half seven years later for builder Anders Johanson. The style was lavishly Neo-Renaissance, as the times dictated.

The western half of the block was demolished in 1939, to make way for the evangelical Smyrna church. They moved out in 2019, to a brand new building in Frihamnen.

Episode 153: Hagakyrkan

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 10 April 2021

For centuries, the inhabitants of district Haga had been fed up with not having a nearby church. Finally in the mid-1800s, monies were supplied by donations from wealthy magnates. One of them was director David Carnegie who had just hired architect Adolf Edelswärd to design a replica Scottish church at his factory community in Klippan west of Gothenburg. So he got the job of redesigning the Neo-Gothic Haga Church too, more or less simultaneously. Which came first, the Klippan or the Haga church?

Almost two years after this episode was made, work was stopped on the railway and station under the church. Everyone involved knew that a Turkish-Italian-Norwegian consortium was not ideal for major infrastructure construction in the west of Sweden, with thixotropic clays overlying crystalline bedrock. It’s not the normal soft sedimentary rocks and hard soils that the rest of the continent is used to! So Trafikverket cancelled their contract in January 2023 and has since tried to find new contractors. Maybe work will resume in the next few years? Meanwhile, design work for the station is ongoing and to say it is challenging would be a huge understatement.

Episode 154: Gamla Stadsbiblioteket

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 10 April 2021

The Social Sciences Library has been closed for several years because of the Västlänken works. It is unclear what will happen to the building in the future, as the works will continue for several years ahead, see above.

Episode 155: kv Husaren

District: Haga

Photo date: 17 April 2021

Until the early to mid 1900s, Gothenburg was primarily a trading city and it was important to have skilled merchants and financiers. Lower and middle economic schools existed (my grandparents met at one) but not higher education, at academic levels. Only in the late 1940s was this School of Economics realised, after substantial donations had been made.

The tall building along Vasagatan was designed by Sture Ljungqvist and Carl Nyrén and put up by Byggnads AB Olle Engkvist in 1950. East of this marble-clad body lay an L-shaped building with red-brick facade – but it was razed for Västlänken soon after having been pre-listed. The rest of the remaining buildings were put up in 1994 and 2009 from designs by the Erséus, Frenning & Sjögren bureau. Since 2020, the northeastern part of the block has been a building site and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, due to Västlänken.

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 Borganäs, Kalmarehus, Kronoberg, Fågelvik, Ulvåsa

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Episodes 136 to 140 continue the tour along the north edge of district Lorensberg – or is it Vasastaden?

Episode 136: kv Borganäs

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 October 2020

Abraham Pehrsson was one of the big builders that operated in Gothenburg in the late 1800s. His company built many of the houses south of Heden, for example, but this fabulous house he built for himself. It was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen in 1882, together with Fahlström’s house across the street making a striking Neo-Renaissance portal towards the south and the rest of Avenyn.

Episode 137: kv Kalmarehus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 14 November 2020

The English quarter was designed as an English terraced row of the late 1860s, to satisfy the aesthetics of its English-born owners. The John Scott name lives on as a franchise of local pubs – what would the Reverend have said about that? JA Westerberg designed Avenyn 3 and August Krüger the rest of the houses along Avenyn. But all the houses were remodelled or replaced in the mid-1940s, from designs by Nils Olsson, Erik Holmdal, Herbert Kockum and C Hedin. Number 5 got a makeover in 1985 by architects Stjernberg & Hultén.

The Pripp villa at Vasagatan 52 was designed by Adrian Peterson in 1877 (”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” page 229). Unlike much that was built at that time, this house isn’t French, Viennese or Florentine Neo-Renaissance but solid German so-called Rohbau. Meaning, as well as I can understand the term, that the brick facade is left exposed rather than hidden by artistic plaster, and decorations are mainly in the form of coloured or glazed tiles.

Episode 138: kv Kronoberg

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

Gothenburg is famous for three things: bad jokes, socialism during the now-defunct industrial era, and Chalmers. The latter is still very important and unlike the jokes appreciated by non-Gothenburgers too. We will return to it in part 210 of this series. The first Chalmers school was situated at the north end of Nordstan, where it is commemorated by a very small plaque in the current mall. And the Arts & Crafts school on Vasagatan moved to city block Oppensten, just south of here.

Episode 139: kv Fågelvik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 February 2021

Well, the video narration is pretty complete as far as the design and building history is concerned. The refurbishment in progress in the photos was led by the White bureau, mostly renowned for daring ultra-modern designs completely at odds with lavish Neo-Renaissance.

Episode 140: kv Ulvåsa

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date:1 November 2020

The twin highrises in this block were put up by builder Janne Johansson in 1897, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen. The architectural fashion has now moved on to Rohbau, in this block described as Moorish or Crusader-like.