The Eliel Square ( fi, Elielinaukio, sv, Elielplatsen) is a

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

on the west side of the

Helsinki Central Station Helsinki Central Station ( fi, Helsingin päärautatieasema, sv, Helsingfors centralstation) ( HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. The station is used by approximately 400,000 peo ...

in the heart of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland. It is named after the railway station designer

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American Architecture, architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero ...

. The square is for the most part the departure and arrival platforms for regional buses. At the northern end of the square is the

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

Hotel and at the southern end is the restaurant

Vltava Vltava ( , ; german: Moldau ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Labe at M ...

. On the west side are the and

Sanomatalo Sanomatalo ( sv, Sanomahuset) is a commercial and office building in central Helsinki, Finland, to the north of Postitalo and the Helsinki Central railway station and to the south of the Helsinki Music Centre. It has twelve floors of which thre ...

History

On the site of the square used to be a small

railway yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for kee ...

, an express luggage wing, which served as a kind of wholesale arrangement area. After its demolition, the area was used as a

parking space A parking space, parking place or parking spot is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. The space may be delineated by road surface markings. ...

. The new

town plan Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

south of Töölönlahti was completed in 1996, and it also included the Eliel Square. The area then passed into city ownership in accordance with an agreement between the city and the country.

New Eliel

The New Eliel ( fi, Uusi Eliel; sv, Nya Eliel) is a project launched in 2017, in which the square will be developed, among other things, through new construction. Construction can be a business,

operational An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...

, service and cultural space, but it should take into account the historical nature of the area and preserve the Vltava building, which is more than a hundred years old. The upper limit of the building height is about 44 meters above sea level, i.e. the construction must not be higher than the Post Office. The area enables the creation of new jobs in the city center with good public transport connections. The project is also intended to develop the flow of pedestrian traffic around the railway station. The total construction target in the planning area was initially 40,000 square meters, but it has since been decided to reduce the volume target for the project by about a quarter. An international architectural competition was held at the end of 2020 to develop Eliel and also the adjacent Railway Square, of which five proposals for the competition were announced in March 2021.

Gallery

References

External links

New Eliel
(in English) {{coord, 60, 10, 18.01, N, 024, 56, 21.98, E, region:FI-18_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Squares in Helsinki Bus stations in Finland Kluuvi