In my last post, I wrote about how the City of Stockholm debated, for decades, about the need for a general city plan. In the end, the King’s representative to the city council Bildt more or less forced the council to agree to commission a plan with the following guidelines:
1) Sufficient and appropriate traffic routes from the periphery to the center of the city
2) Sufficient and appropriate cross-streets
3) Quays at all waterfronts
4) The continuation and widening of existing streets, especially Klara Västra Kyrkogatan, Klara Norra Kyrkogatan, and Vasagatan which Bildt proposed would become the main arteries into Norrmalm from Gamla Stan
5) A new food market at the new train station in Norrmalm
6) A new street on the eastern side of Humlegården which would provide a route out of the city to the north to the natural areas of Norra Djurgården (this street would become Sturegatan)
7) A new street to replace Träskrännilen, the very polluted creek running down into the bay at Nybroviken (this street would become Birger Jarlsgatan)
8) New streets and public spaces in the Fatburen area where the lake had been filled in for the new railroad station
9) Due to expropriation and financing difficulties, Gamla Stan should regretfully be excluded from the plan
10) Because the city’s civil servants were already overwhelmed with their own work, the city council should appoint a special task force
2) Sufficient and appropriate cross-streets
3) Quays at all waterfronts
4) The continuation and widening of existing streets, especially Klara Västra Kyrkogatan, Klara Norra Kyrkogatan, and Vasagatan which Bildt proposed would become the main arteries into Norrmalm from Gamla Stan
5) A new food market at the new train station in Norrmalm
6) A new street on the eastern side of Humlegården which would provide a route out of the city to the north to the natural areas of Norra Djurgården (this street would become Sturegatan)
7) A new street to replace Träskrännilen, the very polluted creek running down into the bay at Nybroviken (this street would become Birger Jarlsgatan)
8) New streets and public spaces in the Fatburen area where the lake had been filled in for the new railroad station
9) Due to expropriation and financing difficulties, Gamla Stan should regretfully be excluded from the plan
10) Because the city’s civil servants were already overwhelmed with their own work, the city council should appoint a special task force
The city council commissioned City Engineer A. W. Wallström to create a proposal and cost estimate in consultation with Rudberg “who has created a commendable plan for [Gamla Stan].” Wallström and Rudberg worked feverishly and in less than two years, they created a masterplan for the entire city. This masterplan was delivered in seven parts which mostly corresponded to Stockholm’s parish divisions.
Klara Parish (Today known as Norrmalm, or City)
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| Top: Wallström and Rudberg's plan for Norrmalm (1). Bottom: Normalm today. |
The first parish delivered by Wallström and Rudberg was Klara parish. Aside from the Old Town Gamla Stan, this was Stockholm’s most heavily developed area. Wallström and Rudberg were reluctant to propose any larger changes to the area that would require the demolition of “large and expensive” buildings. This was directly against Bildt’s directive, but given Rudberg’s experience with a new plan for the Old Town which had been set aside because its radical rebuilding of the area was too complicated and expensive for the cash-strapped city to undertake, it’s not too surprising that he was reluctant to propose yet another radical reformation which would be too expensive to realize.
Perhaps the most short-sighted aspect of this proposal is that the new railroad line isn’t given an area of its own. Instead, the tracks cut right through the middle of the city center and would require that all street traffic be stopped every time a train came into or left the station (Map A). Wallström and Rudberg clearly didn’t foresee today’s level of train traffic where a train comes through almost every 60 seconds! One benefit of having the tracks integrated into the city was that trains would easily be able to deliver goods to the planned Food Market (Saluhall) (Map B) just to the north of the station. A canal (Map C) would make boat deliveries possible, and the street past the Central Station, Vasagatan, was extended to the market (Map D).
Perhaps the most short-sighted aspect of this proposal is that the new railroad line isn’t given an area of its own. Instead, the tracks cut right through the middle of the city center and would require that all street traffic be stopped every time a train came into or left the station (Map A). Wallström and Rudberg clearly didn’t foresee today’s level of train traffic where a train comes through almost every 60 seconds! One benefit of having the tracks integrated into the city was that trains would easily be able to deliver goods to the planned Food Market (Saluhall) (Map B) just to the north of the station. A canal (Map C) would make boat deliveries possible, and the street past the Central Station, Vasagatan, was extended to the market (Map D).
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| Vasagatan north of the Central Station |
The Market was to be surrounded by open space (Map E), and to the north, the open character would continue with three breezy blocks which would contain a park (Map F), a school (Map G), and a bathhouse (Map H). The market, canal, and bathhouse never became reality, but Vasagatan was extended northward and the school and park were built and remain today.
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| Norra Latin school |
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| Park at Norra Bantorget |
One aspect of this plan that was not realized, due to the realities of the railroad and later due to new highways, was that Wallström and Rudberg planed for a stone quay to line the Klara Canal to the west of the railway station (Map I). Today, this area is one of Stockholm’s most unfortunate areas as the waterfront is completely given over to infrastructure. Wallström and Rudberg may not have given enough space to the realities of infrastructure, but the pendulum would later swing to the other extreme where people were completely left out of the area’s planning.
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| Lots of infrastructure (and no space for pedestrians) lining Klara Canal |
Wallström and Rudberg decided not to follow Bildt’s directive regarding widening streets close to Klara Church. They felt that these streets were lined with expensive buildings and that they would never become major through streets, anyway (Map J).
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| A couple of the streets in Klara that Wallström and Rudberg did not widen |
One of the major shortcomings of Wallström and Rudberg’s plan was the lack of east-west through streets. This had always been a challenge as the high, steep ridge Brunkebergsåsen had always been an obstacle for east-west traffic.
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| Brunkeberg Ridge was traditionally navigated by stairs |
The major street leading from Kungsholmen into town, Kungsgatan (Map K), was to be widened, but it wasn’t continued into Östermalm.
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| the older section of Kungsgatan |
Instead, Wallström and Rudberg proposed a tunnel through the ridge. However, the tunnel’s location didn’t really meet up with any other east-west streets. Additionally, the tunnel’s width would be limited and would never be able to accommodate the amount of traffic needed. While the tunnel was in fact eventually built (a block away from the original proposed location) and is still used as a pedestrian and bicycle shortcut today, it never became a major east-west thoroughfare (Map L).
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| Brunkeberg tunnel |
To the north and the south of the ridge, wider connections between Norrmalm and Östermalm were easier to achieve. To the south, Wallström and Rudberg proposed a wider quay near the Opera house (Map M) and to widen the street Arsenalgatan (Map N). North of the ridge, a ring boulevard at the city’s edge would connect the two areas.
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| Left: the quayside by the Royal Opera House. Right: Arsenalgatan doesn't appear to have ever been widened. |
Hedvig Eleonora Parish (Today known as Östermalm)
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| Left: Wallström and Rudberg's plan for Östermalm (1). Right: Östermalm today |
After Klara, I’m not sure in what order Wallström and Rudberg created their proposals, but I’ll continue with Östermalm and head westward from there.
Perhaps the most prescient proposal in this area of town was the boundary boulevard. Other major cities like Paris and Berlin were building such boundary boulevards where the removal of ancient city walls left an empty, green space in the city fabric. Stockholm didn’t have any such fortifications, but it did have the toll fence. Wallström and Rudberg’s boundary boulevard followed, in large part, the toll fence. The boundary boulevard, today’s Narvavägen (Map A),
Perhaps the most prescient proposal in this area of town was the boundary boulevard. Other major cities like Paris and Berlin were building such boundary boulevards where the removal of ancient city walls left an empty, green space in the city fabric. Stockholm didn’t have any such fortifications, but it did have the toll fence. Wallström and Rudberg’s boundary boulevard followed, in large part, the toll fence. The boundary boulevard, today’s Narvavägen (Map A),
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| Narvavägen: much of the center aisle is now occupied by cars instead of flaneuring Stockholmers. Narvavägen was meant as the boundary between city and countryside, but today Östermalm continues a few blocks past the boundary boulevard. Buildings, sidewalk, street, row of trees, walking path, row of trees, walking aisle/parking, row of trees, walking path, street, sidewalk, buildings. |
started at and connected to the Strandvägen Boulevard (Map B) at the bridge to Djurgården. It continued to a new half rond-point at the location of the former tollhouse and where streets would radiate back into the city (today’s Karlaplan, Map C).
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| Karlaplan: The city eventually asked the Crown for additional land east of the old tollhouse so that the rond-point could actually be round and so that Östermalm could continue a couple more blocks to the east. |
From there, the boundary boulevard continued, almost like today’s Valhallavägen (Map D).
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| Valhallavägen: Much of the boulevard's center aisle is taken up by parking. Left: South of Valhallavägen, densly developed city blocks. Right: North of Valhallavägen, institutions in park landscapes (more on these later). Buildings, sidewalk, traffic thoroughfare, row of trees, walking path, row of trees, parking, row of trees, parking, row of trees, traffic thoroughfare, bike lane, sidewalk, grassy lawns. |
This tree-lined boundary boulevard continued north of the city to another rond-point at the tollhouse at Roslagstull (Map E) and into Norrmalm.
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| Roslagstull: On one side of the traffic circle, city. On the other side, car-dominated suburbs. |
It seems that Wallström and Rudberg set out to give every area of the city its own food market, and Östermalm was no exception. Grouping the main public functions of the area together, they proposed an open square with a food market cattycorner to the church. It would be so (Map F).
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| Left: Östermalm's Saluhall (market) (2). Right: Östermalmstorg or Östermalm Square (3). |
All of the waterfrontage, including Blaiseholmen, was to be made into publicly accessible stone quays (Map G).
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| Stone quay at Blaiseholmen's waterside |
In addition to the boundary boulevard, several other streets were to be created or widened into major thoroughfares. The extension of the tunnel from Norrmalm (Map H) was to go south of the park Humlegården and connect to the existing major street, Storgatan (Map I). A new, wide street north of Humlegården (Karlavägen, but W&R’s proposal didn’t include the park strip in the middle of the boulevard, Map J)
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| Karlavägen: Park/buildings, sidewalk, street, row of trees, park with walking and biking path, row of trees, street, sidewalk, buildings. |
would awkwardly bend at a rond-point to connect to the new Birger Jarlsgatan (Map K). Birger Jarlsgatan was planned to be a major north-south thoroughfare, filling in the swampy creek Träskrännilen. The creek had been the effective boundary between Östermalm and Vasastan, and the street still serves that purpose today.
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| Birger Jarlsgatan |
This same rond-point would also connect to the newly extended street Norrlandsgatan which would edge the park Humlegården to the west (today’s Engelbrektsgatan, Map L). Norrlandsgatan was envisioned as connecting the city to the green, leafy
areas of Norra Djurgården. To the east of Humlegården, the new street
Sturegatan (Map M) would completely enclose the park. This last street,
Sturegatan, was explicitly called for in Bildt’s plan requirements
although Bildt had thought that it would be Sturegatan and not
Norrlandsgatan that would connect the city to Norra Djurgården. Sturegatan won out and continues today into the park areas of Norra Djurgården.
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| Left: Engelbrektsgatan. Right: Sturegatan |
Aside from these new and widened streets, Östermalm’s existing street grid would simply be continued northward and eastward, marching until it came to an end at the boundary boulevard.
Johannes and Adolf Fredrik Parishes (Today known as Vasastan)
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| Top: Wallström and Rudberg's plan for Vasastan (1). Bottom: Vasastan today |
From the roundabout at Roslagstull (Map A), the boundary boulevard would continue from Östermalm into the Vasastan area. This road is known as Norra Stationsgatan (Map B) today, and while it the northern section is a major traffic artery, it is hardly the beautiful tree-lined boulevard that Wallström and Rudberg were envisioning.
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| Norra Stationsgatan. Left: Until last year, there were no buildings on the "suburb" side of this boundary "boulevard." Right: Still no buildings on the"suburb" side of this boundary "boulevard." |
Still following the toll fence, the boulevard would continue until making another turn at another rond-point at today’s Torsplan (Map C).
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| Torsplan, or Tor's Square. No square here, just a busy traffic intersection. Two rounded buildings does not create a square, literally or figuratively. |
Then, instead of continuing to follow the toll fence over too-rocky terrain, the boulevard would turn southward, becoming Torsgatan (Map D) today. Torsgatan would continue until it met the water’s edge at Klara Canal,
where it would turn and connect to Vasagatan leading to the central
station, much as Torsgatan does today (Map E).
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| The northern and southern sections of Torsgatan. |
This boundary boulevard would cross a widened Karlsberg allé (Map F) leading from town out to the palace at Karlsberg. Buildings were to be set back from this street and a “flower terrace” was to be planted between the street and the buildings. Both the tree-lined street and the set back buildings were built according to W&R’s plan, though the flower terraces are more like lawns today.
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| Karlsbergsvägen: Buildings, lawn terrace, row of trees, sidewalk, street, sidewalk, lawn terrace, building. |
Wallström and Rudberg proposed that Karlsberg Allé should be extended as a new east-west thoroughfare cutting across Vasastan. The thoroughfare would cut across a new food market square. The extended street, Odengatan, was built, but the food market square was not (Map G).
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| Odengatan |
The terrain south of Karlsberg Allé was considererd too rocky and steep to build upon, so it was to be set aside as a park (Map H). North of the allé, the terrain was also rocky and steep, but instead of being a park, it would be built with villas “to give healthy, sound, and pastoral housing not too far from the movement of the city” (Map I). Not only were Wallström and Rudberg differentiating types of streets in their plan (tree-lined boulevards, tree-lined allées with set back buildings, wide thoroughfares, narrower local streets) as well as different types of open spaces (parks, squares, market squares, roundabouts, churchyards), but they also began to differentiate where different types of housing should be built—large villas on the periphery and tighter blocks closer into the city. Neither the villas nor the park would become reality; instead, these areas would eventually be developed into city blocks, albeit more adapted to the terrain than a pure grid system.
At the northern edge of the city, the water’s edge at Brunnsviken (Map J) would be developed into a harbor with a storage depot (the harbor was never built).
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| Brunnsviken never became an industrial shipping harbor. |
Drottninggatan (Map K), the city’s traditional north-south thoroughfare, would be extended all the way to the new harbor at Brunnsviken.
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| Drottninggatan |
This would require the complete removal of the giant, steep ridge at Observatoriekullen (Map L), but W&R considered this ridge to be “ugly and obstructing” anyway. The 18th century observatory on Observatory Hill could be moved to a more convenient spot. The newly flattened areas on either side of Drottninggatan would be made into a park.
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| Left: Brunkeberg Ridge. Right: The observatory on top of the ridge (4). All to be removed according to W&R's plan. |
Just a few blocks west of Drottninggatan, the street Upplandsgatan (Map M) would be widened giving access from the central city and station to the boundary boulevard to the north. Additionally, Roslagsgatan (Map N), just a few streets east of Drottninggatan, would be widened, similarly connecting the boundary boulevard and the central parts of the city. One can wonder why Wallström and Rudberg thought that all three thoroughfares were necessary, especially when the extension of Drottninggatan would require the removal of an entire geological feature.
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| Left: Upplandsgatan. Right: Roslagsgatan. Neither became the north-south thoroughfares that W&R planned. |
With so many parallel streets, it’s hard to read a hierarchy into the plan. The streets are all connecting different destinations, but in awkward ways. Wallström and Rudberg were seemingly trying to create a Baroque plan with axis and monumental perspectives, but the destinations were just too numerous, too un-monumental, and too out of alignment to really work. Later planners also found this part of their proposal preposterous and all three streets were combined into the future thoroughfare of Sveavägen (Map O) which, being just to the side of the ridge, did not require so much earthworks.
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| Sveavägen. |
Another difficult area of terrain to the east of the hospital of Sabbatsberg was to be turned into a small park. This area would eventually become the park of Tegnerlunden (Map Q).
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| Tegnerlunden: a park planted on a high, hard-to-build-upon knob of granite. |
Ulrika Eleonora Parish (Today known as Kungsholmen)
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| Top: Wallström and Rudberg's plan for Kungsholmen (1). Bottom: Kungsholmen today. |
Wallström and Rudberg paid very litte attention to Kungsholmen. In fact, they only planned the eastern half of the island, excusing themselves by writing that the terrain of the western half of the island was too rocky and steep and that it was better suited to pastoral summer houses. The boundary of what they did and did not plan followed the old toll fence, and the planned area ended at today’s Fridhemsplan (Map A).
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| Fridhemplan |
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| Fridhemsplan is still a clear boundary between dense city and spread-out suburb. Left: on the "city" side of Fridhemsgatan, dense city blocks. Right: On the "suburb" side of the same street, towers in a park. |
None-the-less, several of Wallström and Rudberg’s Kungsholmen proposals eventually came to pass. They planned a tree-lined boulevard and stone quayside along the southern shore of the island; this would become Norr Mälarstrand (Map B).
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| Norr Mälarstrand: Buildings, road, parking, bike lane, strip of park, then walking path by the water. The water's edge is left "natural" without hard, stone quays. |
Half of the water’s edge at Norr Mälarstrand would eventually be developed into a stone quay, the other half would be left natural.
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| Toward the city, Norr Mälarstrand has hard stone quays. |
This boulevard would turn northward (Mariebergsgatan, Map C) at a rond-pointe and then swing eastward to the widened,
extended, tree-planted Fleminggatan (Map D). These streets would
eventually be built, but they were never connected in a continuous loop.
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| Left: Mariebergsgatan. City on one side, suburbs on the other side. Right: Fleminggatan. The tree-lined aspect of this street seems to be a struggle. |
Strangely, Wallström and Rudberg left Kungsholmen with only one bridge to the mainland (Map E) despite the short distance across the canal. Even more strangely, their ring of boulevards awkwardly connects to the bridge—there is no straight shot from the bridge and onto the boulevard system. In short, Kungsholmen is very badly connected to the rest of the city in this plan.
A small boat harbor was included in their plan for Norr Mälarstrand (Map F). The harbor is on the inland side of the boulevard, so it is unclear how the boats were supposed to get into the harbor. While this protected harbor was not built, there is a small dock and boat harbor out on the water today (Map G).
Wallström and Rudberg also planned for a boulevard and quay on the north shore of the island, and while a road was built here (today’s Kungsholms Strand, Map H), it never became a big thoroughfare. The stone quay was not built; the shore on this side of the island is still somewhat natural. They drew a half-hearted attempt to connect the two boulevards, but the level difference between the water’s edge and Fleminggatan is too great to allow for such a direct connection; today, the level difference is negotiated by a four-story staircase (Map I).
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| Left: Kungsholmsstrand with it's "natural" shoreline, row of trees, bike path, street, sidewalk, buildings. Right: Staircases navigate the height difference between the waterside and the interior of the island. |
They also ignored the steep, rocky terrain at Kronoberg and drew two roads that cut straight across the height. Today, this hard-to-build-upon area is set aside as a park (Map J).
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| Kronobergsparken: another park planted on a high, hard-to-build-upon knob of granite. |
Another connection between Norr Mälarstrand and the newly widened Fleminggatan was planned for the eastern end of the island where Kungsholmstorg (Map K), a square, would be extended into a major street, Scheelegatan. This was built, but according to W&R's plan, Scheelegatan would never connect further to bridges or ring boulevards.
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| Left: Kungsholmstorg or Kungsholmen's Square (buildings, sidewalk, row of trees, strip of park with walking path, row of trees, street, sidewalk, buildings). Right: Scheelegatan, the direct extention of the square. |
While Wallström and Rudberg did draw a grid system of blocks on the area, the blocks are much larger than of Norrmalm and Östermalm. The blocks get bigger and bigger farther from the city center. It’s like W&R ran out of steam and just got tired of drawing streets on the map. Their plan for Kungsholmen is particularly uninspired and unrealistic.
Katrina and Maria Parishes (Today known as Södermalm)
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| Top: Wallström and Rudberg's plan for Södermalm (1). Bottom: Södermalm today. |
Like Kungsholmen, Södermalm had traditionally gotten very little attention from city authorities. Not only were the two areas the domain of the poorer populations of the city as well as of the polluting industries, but their topography made planning and building difficult. But Wallström and Rudberg finally gave Södermalm some attention. They praised the area as Stockholm’s most beautiful and healthiest area. Healthiest was definitely a stretch, but all of the heights did catch a lot of fresh breeze. Their view of Södermalm as a healthy area of town is a bit ironic because much of their plan for Södermalm involved bringing more industry to the island.
Like on Kungsholmen, W&R planned to regularize Södermalm’s shoreline and to build roads and quays along the water’s edge. But while Kungsholmen’s quays were to be tree-lined boulevards, Södermalm’s quays were to be much more industrial in character. The quay along the Baltic sea at Stadsgården (maps A), easily accessible to all the large ships coming in and out of the Stockholm harbor, was to be made especially wide with storage depots and a railroad spur with four parallel tracks.
Like on Kungsholmen, W&R planned to regularize Södermalm’s shoreline and to build roads and quays along the water’s edge. But while Kungsholmen’s quays were to be tree-lined boulevards, Södermalm’s quays were to be much more industrial in character. The quay along the Baltic sea at Stadsgården (maps A), easily accessible to all the large ships coming in and out of the Stockholm harbor, was to be made especially wide with storage depots and a railroad spur with four parallel tracks.
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| Stadsgården: Cliff, traffic thoroughfare, bike thoroughfare, walking path, huge parking lots for the ferry terminals, ferry terminals, then water. Humans have very little access to the waterside today; the water's not even visible from the sidewalk for long stretches. |
On the Lake Mälaren side of the island, another quay with depots was to be built; this would become Söder Mälarstrand (maps B).
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| Söder Mälarstrand: Water, stone quay with walking path, row of trees, bike path, parking, traffic thoroughfare, sidewalk, cliff. |
And on the south side of the island along Hammarbysjö or Hammarby Lake (maps C)
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| Quay along Hammarby Lake with traces of the previous industrial character. |
and along Årstaviken (maps D), another long quayside with depots was to be built to encourage new industries to establish themselves here. While the quays were built at Stadsgården, along Söder Mälarstrand, and along Hammarby Lake, the shoreline along Årstaviken, while regularized, was left natural.
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| Park and walking paths along Årstaviken. |
Another effort to encourage the foundation of more industries along Hammarby Lake was the proposal for a canal (Map E) to be blasted through to the Baltic Sea at Danvik. This would come to pass.
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| Danvik's Canal. Left: looking out to the Baltic Sea. Right: looking inland toward Hammarby Lake (which wasn't really a lake after the canal was blasted). |
Wallström and Rudberg proposed that the islands out in the middle of the Årstaviken Bay should be used as a zoo, and that a bridge should be built out to them. Ironically, a very high bridge would eventually be built over the islands, but the bridge would never give access to the islands (Map F).
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| Årstaholmar: today, a tiny nature reserve in the middle of the city only accessible by boat. |
In addition to providing infrastructure for new industries, Wallström and Rudberg’s other focus on Södermalm was to finally provide good access from the waterside up into the main area of the island. Historically, there had only been one road and several staircases up from the lock at Slussen. The topography and granite cliffs remained, however, so W&R’s proposal involved two tunnels. One tunnel would start at the quay at Söder Mälarstrand and once up on the plateau (Map G), the street would continue south and then (awkwardly) turn to the quay at Årstaviken (Map H). The second tunnel (Map I) would start from the quay at Stadsgården and then continue south, eventually awkwardly connecting to the island’s existing square at Nytorget (Map J). The Nytorget square would be doubled in size to the west, and then a new boulevard (sort of today’s Katarina Bangata, Map K) would connect the square to the quay at Hammarby Lake. Neither of these tunnels were built; instead, dynamite was eventually used to blast winding roadways up onto Södermalm’s heights including at Torkel Knutssonsgatan (Map G).
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| Torkel Knutssonsgatan: an open-air tunnel through Södermalm's bedrock. |
A third route up would also start from Stadsgården at a bay called Tegelviken. A new square and storage depot would be built at Tegelviken, which had always been a hive of industrial and harbor activity,
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| The bay of Tegelviken has been filled in and is now used as a massive ferry terminal. |
and then the existing road, taking advantage of the relatively gentle topography here, rose up to the plateau (today’s Folkungagatan, Map L).
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| Once a hive of industrial brick-making activity (tegel means "brick"), Tegelviken is now a series of left-over spaces between the cliffs and the various traffic infrastructures. |
A new open square would be placed where the road finally reached the plateau (Map M).
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| This nameless open space is now being built up; an extension of the nearby hospital is to open in a couple of years. |
From the plateau square, the road would continue across the island all the way to Årstaviken. The "square" at Tegelviken, the "square" up on the plateau, and the road up from Tegelviken all exist today, but the road was not continued across the island. Today, the two open areas do not feel at all like city squares; rather, they feel more like parts of the city’s traffic apparatus.
While Södermalm didn’t get the same kind of boundary boulevard that encircles Östermalm and Norrmalm, a boulevard system was planned for the island. First of all, the main east-west axis Hornsgatan was to be widened and planted with trees (Map N).
While Södermalm didn’t get the same kind of boundary boulevard that encircles Östermalm and Norrmalm, a boulevard system was planned for the island. First of all, the main east-west axis Hornsgatan was to be widened and planted with trees (Map N).
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| Hornsgatan: Some blocks are tree-planted, others are not. Too much concrete for the trees to thrive. |
A new ring boulevard (Map O) was to swoop from the northern end of the island around to the southeastern area of the island.
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| Ringvägen: Buildings, sidewalk, access road, row of trees, green strip, row of trees, traffic thoroughfare, row of trees, green strip, row of trees, access road, sidewalk, buildings. |
Strangely, the ring boulevard was to dead end at both ends into high, rocky areas—Skinnarviksberget to the north (Map P) and Vita Bergen to the southeast (Map Q). This ring boulevard was
eventually built with the strange dead ends and is today called
Ringvägen. It is still an odd, disparate part of the city circulation.
This is the one awkward connection in W&R's plan that was
actually built; most of the other awkward joints were reworked in later
plans.
Both rocky areas at Skinnarviksberget (Map P)
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| Park at Skinnarviksberget. The only one of Stockholm's high, granite knobs that has been left bald. |
and Vita Bergen (Map Q)
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| Park at Vita Bergen. Rounded, planted and green, the original bald knob is hidden under lots of dirt and trash which provided a base for the verdant plantings seen today. |
were to become parks. However, Wallström and Rudberg didn’t like the bleakness of the barren granite and they proscribed that the rock should be covered and planted. Both of these heights would eventually become parks, but Skinnarviksberget would be left as barren rock. They also planned for a park on the small height above today’s Björns trädgården (not built, Map R) and, as proscribed in Bildt’s plan requirements, for a park in the swampy area at Fatburen (eventually buit, Map S).
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| Fatbursparken: not realized until the 1990's. |
A food market was planned along the main thoroughfare Götgatan. More than a century later, this food hall would eventually be built at Medborgarplatsen (Map T).
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| Medborgarplatsen |
Like on Kungsholmen, Wallström and Rudberg’s plan peters out to the west. The high, rocky area with views out over the bay at Årstaviken was set aside for villas (Map U), but the other western areas of the island were just left unplanned. It’s like W&R couldn’t even imagine that the city would ever need to expand that far.
Critique
In my more detailed area-by-area descriptions of Wallström and Rudberg’s plan above, I’ve included critiques about specific aspects of the plan. But looking at the plan as a whole, some parts of it seem much more developed while other parts are more two dimensional, not taking topography or important connections into consideration. Large portions of the plan are just clumsy and the traffic planning non-existent. There is no consideration of any sort of public transportation, although to be fair, few other cities in the world were starting to develop any sort of organized system at that time, either.
The plan is full of Baroque-inspired rond-pointes but these are little more than large traffic circles in W&R’s plan—nowhere are they developed into places. Additionally, the straight-as-an-arrow boulevards and thoroughfares lack axes and landmarks to draw one forward. A limited number of blocks have been left open as squares, and a number of parks occupy otherwise undevelopable land, but there seems to be little thought as to a more civic-oriented city either in the form of public spaces or new cultural institutions.
It seems that Wallström and Rudberg have given each area of the city a food market, a school, and a hospital, but I find it strange that the outer areas of the plan entirely lack schools, medical facilities, markets, and churches. W&R plan for Stockholm’s land area to more than double, but they do not plan for corresponding services. From the northwestern area of Vasastan, one would have to walk at least two miles to the nearest market.
Wallström and Rudberg were very diligent about setting aside land at the water’s edge for quays and roads. While the waterfront had been mostly privately owned in the past, they gave the public access to the water. Instead of expropriating private land for this purpose, they planned to fill out and even out the natural contours. Before them, most of Stockholm’s waterfront had always had a jagged edge, but they planned the smooth, even contours that we are still familiar with seeing on maps today.
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| Comparison of the original, jagged shoreline edged by private lots (5) and the rounded, smoothed, public shoreline introduced in W&R's plan. (South side of Kungsholmen). |
Politics
Incredibly, Wallström and Rudberg completed their plan for the entire city within 17 months. It is no wonder that parts of the city like western Kungsholmen were just left out and that parts of the plan were so clumsily connected. Even so, both the press and the city council were very positive and praised the plan.
It’s important to remember that the entire municipal machinery was brand new—none of the new processes had been tested yet and none of the new councils, committees, or departments fully understood who was responsible for what, or who had responsibility over others.
The council approved the plan and turned it over to Bildt, the King’s representative on the council. Bildt also approved the plan and turned it over to the municipal department which would actually implement the plan. But here, progress stopped. The public works department reacted negatively to being handed a finished plan and told to implement it. They decided that instead of merely implementing a plan that the council had approved, they should first review the plan. Having been given the plan in a top-down process, the department’s review was sure to be negative...
And negative it was. First, the department criticized that the inner city was left almost completely intact as is and that the plan really only touched new, unbuilt areas. Parks and tree-lined boulevards were mostly relegated to the new, outer areas of the city. They also criticized that the plan was very detail-oriented, and that the parts didn’t make a unified whole. The awkward connections between major streets were especially criticized. The plan solved some specific problems, sometimes well and sometimes less well, but it lacked a comprehensive vision that would unify the city’s various landmasses into a cohesive cityscape.
Instead of reviewing the plan and asking for a new iteration, the department completely rejected Wallström and Rudberg’s plan and decided to make one of its own.
Conclusion
Wallström and Rudberg’s plan was eventually critiqued and discarded, but elements of their plan did live on in the future Lindhagen Plan. However, it is hard to separate Wallström and Rudberg’s creativity from Bildt’s top-down list of plan requirements, and I would argue that many of the plan elements which are credited to Lindhagen actually date back Wallström and Rudberg and then even farther back to Bildt. I’m getting ahead of myself, I’ll be writing about the Lindhagen plan in a future post, but my point is: Even if Wallström and Rudberg’s plan was discarded, it provided one more layer upon which Stockholm’s future plan was based. The mid-nineteenth century process of creating a general plan for Stockholm is often oversimplified and boiled down to the Lindhagen Plan of 1866, but there were actually many more steps along the way. The Lindhagen Plan may be a much better result, but it is a distillation of Bildt’s requirements as well as Wallström and Rudberg’s plan.
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| Red: Boundary boulevards that were more-or-less built according to Wallström and Rudberg's General Plan. Orange: Cross streets and thoroughfares that were more-or-less built according to Wallström and Rudberg's General Plan. |
Sources
Thomas Hall, Huvudstad i Omvandling (2002)
Gösta Selling, Esplanadsystemet och Albert Lindhagen: Stadsplanering i Stockholm åren 1857-1887 (1970)
Images are my own except for:
1) W&R maps: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindhagenplanen
2) Östermalm's Saluhall: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96stermalms_saluhall
3) Östermalmstorg: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96stermalmstorg
4) Observatoriet: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholms_gamla_observatorium
