Oslo, Norway - Radhuset (City Hall) - real photo postcard c.1960s

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Oslo City Hall (Norwegian: Oslo rådhus) is a municipal building in Oslo, the capital of Norway. It houses the city council, the city's administration and various other municipal organisations. The building as it stands today was constructed between 1931 and 1950, with an interruption during the second world war. It was designed by architects Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson. The building is located in the city center, in the northern part of the Pipervika neighbourhood, and it faces Oslofjord.

Oslo City Hall is built of red brick and has two towers, one 63 meters tall and other 66 meters tall. The bricks used are larger than what was typical at the time of construction, but are roughly the same size as bricks used in the middle ages. The bricks - measuring approximately 27,5 x 13 x 8,5 cm - were produced by Hovin Teglverk in Oslo. The eastern tower has a set of 49 bells. Various events and ceremonies take place in the building, including the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony which takes place every December.

The idea of building a new city hall in Pipervia was first suggested by Oscar Hoff (an architect) in 1906, but nothing came of the plans. In 1915, the idea was taken up by Hieronymus Heyerdahl, who had just stood down as mayor. He noticed the city's lack of a representative city hall to receive the municipality's guests during the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition in Frogner. He set up an architectural competition which received a total of 44 entries in the first of two rounds. In 1918 Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson were selected as winners, whose project was clearly inspired by Stockholm City Hall. A continuned lack of funds meant that construction had to wait, and in the intervening years the architects made several changes to the project. In 1930 they present their final draft, which had undergone significant changes, influenced by functionalism. The most apparent change was the addition of two office towers.

The ground stone laying ceremony took place in September 1931, with King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav in attendance. Actual construction began in February 1933. Various buildings were also torn down. The city's old amusement park - Tivoli - was also forced to close as a new zoning plan created new plots of land for sale. The purpose was to raise funds for the construction of the building.

In November 1936 the shell of the building was completed. A few floors of office space were in use by the time war broke out in 1940. Contruction resumed after the war and the office space was in use by 1947, while final touches were still being added.

Oslo City Hall was officially opened on 15 May 1950, as part of the city's 900-year anniversary. Three musical compositions were written in connection with the celebrations, written by Ludvig Irgens-Jensen, Eivind Groven and Karl Andersen.

By the time it opened in 1950, the style of the building was no longer popular. Brick was in stark contrast to the steel and glass which architects considered modern at the time, and no further buildings were built in that style afterwards. Stockholm's city hall - also in brick - had been designed by Ragnar Östberg, and Martin Nyrop designed Copenhagen City Hall, which is also a monumental brick building. Both Nyrop and Östberg were on the jury which selected the winning design of Oslo City Hall.