Page 4 of 10
Helsinki, Finland
Janine, Janine I sing, if you were the Baltic Sea and I was a cup
If (for some unknown reason) you were forced to pick a favorite Saarinen, just about everyone (myself included) would probably pick Eero over Eliel. Eero after all was the one who designed Dulles Airport, the Gateway Arch in St Louis and the old TWA/new Jet Blue terminal at JFK, all incredible buildings, all significant icons of modernism. Eliel (Eero's dad) was no particular slouch either, he eventually left Finland and ended up at Cranbrook in Michigan, befriending and mentoring students who included no other than Charles and Ray Eames (see "Claim to Fame, Clamor for Glamour," 2006), part of an extending influence that affected and changed Modernism more than anything Eero ever did.
Before he left Finland, Eliel made his mark with (just about) everyone's favorite building in Helsinki. The Helsinki Central Railway Station is just what it claims to be- both central and a major railway station with connections throughout Finland and right on to Russia. The building is most notable for its front masonry facade that features a large, somewhat severe arch flanked by four statues of naked guys holding globes, statues that over time have become icons to both the city and country.
The center of Helsinki- especially if you don't count its scenic port, the central rail station, where people really live or the actual physical geographic center of the city. For a good portion of its past, Finland and Helsinki were part of Russia and you really start to feel part of that alternate history at Senate Square. The buildings (and city) were built after Russia defeated Sweden for control of the country, so the scale and style of the buildings start to echo what was happening over at Saint Petersburg, with the one major difference being a more traditional (and contemporary for the time) Lutheran church took center stage instead of some colorful onion dome extravaganza (see Pages 7, 8 and 9 for all the onion domes you could ever want).
The most famous and influential modern architect to come out of Finland (especially if you start skipping Saarinens) was Alvar Aalto. His most famous building in Helsinki (or anywhere really) was Finlandia Hall, a building that was only five minutes from my highly recommended hotel but was closed for interior renovations during my visit. Normally such a statement would not make me all that suspicious, but I vaguely remember a similar excuse being offered the last time I tried to visit Finladia Hall seven summers ago. Based on these two visits I have now come to the conclusion that either construction work in Finland is painfully slow or, more likely, that the building might not even have an interior. Maybe all those interior photos I always see were of models or just highly realistic paintings, maybe it's all just a scam to somehow cheat Finns out of some of their hard earned Euros. I guess we'll never know for sure.
I'm positive that one day in the future I'll visit Helsinki and Finlandia Hall again and I'm just as positive that it will be closed again that day for some type of mysterious interior renovation.
I must have walked by Steven Holl's (still) wonderful Kiasma art museum at least a dozen times over the (technically) three calendar days I was in and out of Helsinki but not once did I actually go in. Such a plan was not one of desire but sadly one of circumstance. I arrived early (before 10AM) on my first day, but unfortunately it was a Monday and the museum was closed, while the next day I was technically out of the country for a while (see tomorrow's slides) and did not return until minutes after closing, just in time to arrive to another locked door, another set of misleading reflections, another mocking glimpse into that (still) wonderful lobby.
Not nearly as cool as the railway station, Finlandia Hall or Kiasma, the well nicknamed Rock Church is in fact a church with a lot of rocks. Excavated from the top of a hill in a residential section of Helsinki, the walls consist of blasted stone and the fill recovered from said blasts, with a large circular copper ceiling surrounded by skylights. Certainly interesting and a great place to hang out and watch Asian tour groups take pictures of each other.
Unlike other recent slides, the building wasn't designed by either of the alliterative Saarinens (Eero or Eliel), but rather it was designed by the alliterative Suomalaninens (Timo and Tuomo). No, you shouldn't have any idea who the hell they are and yes, I did have to look that up online.
