City-Center
Flying Saucer, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
- Architect
- Viljo Revell
- Completed
- 1967
Viljo Revell's 1958–1960 competition-winning plan for the city block bounded by Kaivokatu, Keskuskatu, and Aleksanterinkatu envisioned a cluster of new office and retail buildings replacing older structures at the heart of Helsinki. Only one part of that plan was ultimately built as designed: the 1967 office and shopping building known locally as Makkaratalo, or "Sausage House," for the rounded balcony profile of its street facade. Revell died suddenly in 1964, midway through construction of Toronto's new city hall, and the remainder of the Helsinki city-centre scheme was carried through by his colleague Heikki Castrén.
