More eccentric exposition architecture. This edifice towered briefly over the Stockholm skyline for the General Art and Industrial Exposition of 1897, an event for which there seems to be very little information online. The exposition doesn’t receive an entry at ExpoMuseum and this is the only photo at the Library of Congress’s wonderful Photocrom archive. The Swedish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition three years later was the most eccentric structure on display and received favourable reviews as a result, many people finding it a lot more interesting than the staid architecture of other nations.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Columbus Monument
• The Palais du Trocadéro
• The Evanescent City
• Ephemeral architecture
Stockholms City’s “Stockholmskällen” (Sources to Stockholm) has additional images of the exposition. Several of the pavillions were sold, moved an rebuild as summer villas and some still exists today. http://www.stockholmskallan.se/index.php?sokning=1&action=visaPost&urval=foto&fritext=Stockholmsutst%E4llningen+1897&start=0&mediaId=10619&post=0
The main architect of the exhibition was Ferdinand Boberg who where among other responsible for the main building of the exhibition, visible in the middle of the picture. In the right corner of the picture, we see the temporary wing of the “Nordiska Museet”, drawn by I. G. Clason. It was later partly torn down, partly integrated in the present structure.
Boberg was the responsible arhitect for most Swedish exhibition architecture from the 1890s until 1915 (Chicago, Paris, St. Louis etc).
He also worked in a more serious style, and is today known for eg the central post office in Stockholm and Malmö ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Post_Office_Building, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Centralposten,_Malm%C3%B6.jpg ), Rosenbad ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenbad ) and the fire station in Gävle ( http://www.gastrikeraddningstjanst.se/grtj/grtj_sida.aspx?id=94 ).
Thanks for the information. The towers on the Malmö building are a curious detail for an otherwise sober design.
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