Åhléns City is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

in the Norrmalm district in central

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The building is located at

Klarabergsgatan Klarabergsgatan is a main street in the district of Norrmalm in central Stockholm, Sweden. The street runs from Sergels Torg in the east to Klarabergsviadukten in the west, with a length of 350 metres and a width of 36 metres. Most of the houses a ...

50 and takes up the entirety of the Gripen block. Åhléns City is the largest singular store of the

Åhléns Åhléns () is a chain of Swedish department stores. With locations in almost every city in the country, including 18 in Stockholm alone , it is the fourth largest group of fashion stores in Sweden. History Åhléns began as a mail order bus ...

chain and amounts to almost 20% of the chain's total revenue. The building was designed by the architectural bureau Backström & Reinius Arkitekter AB, was opened on 9 September 1964 and was awarded the

Kasper Salin Prize The Kasper Salin Prize ( sv, Kasper Salin-priset) is a prize awarded annually by Architects Sweden () to a Swedish building or building project "of high architectural quality". It is considered the most prestigious architectural prize in the countr ...

in 1966. The building is noted by the

Stockholm City Museum The Stockholm City Museum ( sv, Stadsmuseet i Stockholm) is a museum documenting, preserving and exhibiting the history of Stockholm. The museum is housed in Södra Stadshuset at Slussen on Södermalm. The building was completed in 1685. In the 1 ...

for "having an obviously high cultural historical value".

Background

In the 1950s the board of Åhlén & Holm saw that the redevelopment of Norrmalm would move the centre of the city from Hötorget to

Sergels torg Sergels torg ("Sergel's Square") is a major public square in Stockholm, Sweden, constructed in the 1960s and named after 18th-century sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, whose workshop was once located north of the square. Overview Sergels torg has ...

. Åhlén & Holm owned a building on Hötorget at the time, called Tempohuset, where the Kungshallen building is currently located. The

Stockholm Municipality Stockholm Municipality or the City of Stockholm ( sv, Stockholms kommun or ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, maki ...

exchanged the building at Hötorget with a building where Åhléns City is currently located. Both parties benefited from the deal, the municipality got a valuable building and Åhlén & Holm got a building precisely next to the

Stockholm Metro The Stockholm metro ( sv, Stockholms tunnelbana) is a rapid transit system in Stockholm, Sweden. The first line opened in 1950, and today the system has 100 stations in use, of which 47 are underground and 53 above ground. There are three colou ...

hub

T-Centralen T-Centralen (Swedish for "The T-Central"; T being an abbreviation for "tunnelbana", the Swedish word for "underground" or "subway") is a metro station that forms the heart of the Stockholm metro system, in the sense that it is the only station ...

near the Stockholm Central Station. The old building in the Gripen block was torn down in the early 1960s along with the

Stockholm workers' institute Stockholm () is the capital and most populous city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately 1 million people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million i ...

and the

Valhalla Mission In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat e ...

Building

The

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

plan originally described a low building with two floors and three

multifamily residential Multifamily residential (also known as multidwelling unit or MDU) is a classification of housing where multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. Units ca ...

buildings on top of it.

Backström & Reinius Bäckström and Backström are Swedish surnames, etymologically distinct from one another, and sometimes anglicized to Beckstrom or Backstrom. Bäckström means "creak stream". Backström means "downhill stream". Notable people with the name incl ...

changed this after studying American commercial architecture to a windowless high street facade with a painted wall with alternating red and white stripes. The outer surface of the

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable molding (process), mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples i ...

elements consists of brick glassed in red and white. The architects wanted to avoid

electronic signage Electronic signage (also called electronic signs or electronic displays) are illuminant advertising media in the signage industry. Major electronic signage include fluorescent signs, HID ( high intensity displays), incandescent signs, LED signs, an ...

with

neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

and thought the facade was signage enough on its own. The company has later opted to advertise with large photograph prints on the facade. The building was commissioned by Åhlén & Holm AB, who got a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

in 1962. The building was constructed by Jacobson & Widmark and Svenska Industribyggen AB (SIAB). During the building foundation in 1963 in the presence of city antiquarian Tord O:son Nordberg and Åhléns's CEO Gösta Åhlén a copper chest was built into the foundation. It contained 50 selected articles representing the typical catalogue of Åhléns's sale items. On the opening day on 9 September 1964, 25 thousand people visited Åhléns City. The facade to Klarabergsgatan is dominated by a large clock and the company name painted in gold colour. The clock was designed by the building architects and was built from copper with real leaf gold. The clock is synchronised with the

Klara Church The Church of Saint Clare or Klara Church ( sv, Klara kyrka) is a church in central Stockholm. Since 1989, the Swedish Evangelical Mission is responsible for its activities. The Church of Saint Clare is located on Klara Västra Kyrkogata in the ...

and the Swedish radio.Swedish building registry
/ref> The whole building measures 40 by 130 metres and can be reached from Klarabergsgatan, Mäster Samuelsgatan and T-Centralen. The building also contains four underground floors. There are two underground floors for parking spaces. The building interior has been renovated several times. The building is currently owned by Stefan Persson's property company Ramsbuy Property AB.

Gallery

EU-SE-Stockholm-Center 035.JPG, Facade to Mäster Samuelsgatan, 2009. Åhléns City, 24 december 2020a.jpg, Advertising window to Klarabergsgatan, 2020. Klarabergsgatan nov 2011a.jpg, Åhléns City with Christmas decorations 2011. Åhléns City of Stockholm (33750288372).jpg, Corner between Klarabergsgatan and Drottninggatan with entrance to T-Centralen in the foreground. Klarabergsgatan, 2019 (01).jpg, View of Klarabergsgatan to the west with Åhléns City to the right, 2019. Åhléns City, 24 december 2020.jpg Åhléns City, 24 december 2020e.jpg Åhléns City, 24 december 2020b.jpg Åhléns City, 24 december 2020c.jpg Åhléns City, 24 december 2020d.jpg

References

External links

*
Åhléns official site
{{Coord, 59, 19, 56, N, 18, 03, 41, E, region:SE, display=title Shopping centres in Sweden Buildings and structures in Stockholm

Background

Building

Gallery

See also

References

External links