Oslo, as most other cities, has over the years seen many unfulfilled plans for urban development and renewal. I tough I might make a little tread just to show some of them. But first, a map of Oslo as of today.
http://www.vegvesen.no/region_ost/prosjekter/frem2005/kart.jpg



The architect of the Royal Palace (1823-49) in Oslo (then; Christiania), H.D.F. Linstow (1787-1851), made this plan in 1838 to connect the renaissance town of Christiania and the palace. This plan was only partial carried out.

http://static.flickr.com/100/315250388_ec3394bdbd.jpg?v=0

This is an early plan for Grünerløkka:
http://static.flickr.com/100/315215806_f0bcbd93cf.jpg?v=0

One of many proposed solutions on the Oslo East railway terminus, this one from 1878:
http://static.flickr.com/122/315918885_18ae453387.jpg?v=0

Planning Director of Oslo, Harald Hals (1876-1959), (and his staff) made this master plan for Oslo in 1929:
http://static.flickr.com/104/315215814_d6c3c247d6.jpg



As new urban ideals became prominent, and the merger between Oslo and the surrounding municipality of Aker became more imminent, this new master plan was made already in 1935:

http://static.flickr.com/111/315215810_671d5a0a9b.jpg?v=0

Harald Hals and his Oslo model:
http://static.flickr.com/112/315250381_daddaef689.jpg?v=0

Both according to the 1929 and the 1935 master plans, many major road were to be widened, among them Bogstadveien and Pilestredet. Today these plans have been forsaken because of a whish to reduce thru traffic in the city centre. All over town one might still see traces of these plans.

As in Bogstadveien:
http://www.bjerke-eiendom.no/filesystem/2005/10/tn_9bbu6006_94.jpg
http://www.finn.no/finn/map?toolMode=3&toolMode=&themeLayer=&availableAdLayers=50&selectedAdLayers=50&availableAdLayers=30&selectedAdLayers=30&availableAdLayers=20&selectedAdLayers=20&selectedInfoLayers=POI_TRIKK&selectedInfoLayers=POI_BYDELSGRENSE&selectedInfoLayers=POI_BARNEHAGE&selectedInfoLayers=POI_TBANE&selectedInfoLayers=POI_SYKEHUS&selectedInfoLayers=POI_POST&selectedInfoLayers=POI_BUSSHOLDEPLASS&selectedInfoLayers=POI_SKOLER&selectedInfoLayers=&fromX=323&fromY=156&toX=329&toY=207&altCmd=&projection=Ortofoto&minX=260689.73&maxX=261284.27&minY=6650683.0&maxY=6651007.0&mapScale=3061&doAir=1&tabState=&zoom_in.x=53&zoom_in.y=4

Interesting planns, and welcome to SSC forums Oslo 5! :)

Do you have any renderings of the masterplann of Karl Johan? As far as i know they proposed to built a few high-rises down the street there!

Interesting! The early plan for Grünerløkka looks quite alot like how it is today.

I've heard of a few cancelled highrises in Oslo. Does anyone have any drawings?

Thanks :)


The Grünerløkka plan has many similarities with the final result, but there are also many differences, especially around Schaus Bryggeri (brewery) which was located at the intersection at the bottom. Some of the early buildings belonging to the brewery is indicated on the map. For the Norwegian reading audience, there is also the limited area sett aside for Sofienberg kirkegård (graveyard). Later on, under the severe cholera epidemic of the 1870s, all of what now comprises the Sofienbergparken (the largest park on Grünerløkka) was eventually used as graveyard. On upper Grünerløkka, on the top half of the map, most of the blocks became divided in two (in the 1890s) to insure more light and air to every flat.

I have no pictures of the proposed high-rises on Karl Johan, but I have one of an early proposal on redevelopment of Vaterland (Postgirobygget on the left on the model):
http://static.flickr.com/107/315209145_685891e5a8.jpg?v=0

^ If im not wrong that should be about where Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel is standing today, right?

Grünerløkka as of today:
http://www.minbydel.no/Bydel-2-Grunerlokka-kart.jpg

The park 'Birkelunden' and the Sports arena 'Dælenga' was also later addison’s.

Some newer fulfilled renewal plans for Grünerløkka. From the 1930s:
http://static.flickr.com/106/315215798_139bcff090.jpg?v=0

From the 1960s:
http://static.flickr.com/113/315250378_9c1a9d0ba9.jpg?v=0

Also from the 1960s:
http://static.flickr.com/115/315918891_4bafb1a0c3.jpg?v=0

Grünerløkka as it is preserved today (large parts also landmarked):
http://www.oslosurf.com/innhold/17mai_for_alle_w468.jpg
Autumn on Grünerløkka:
http://static.flickr.com/106/311353861_26f6dce3b2.jpg?v=0
Winter on Grünerløkka:
http://static.flickr.com/104/311353855_f3906270d4.jpg?v=0

^^

be glad that commie redevelopment project never happened!

That’s quite right (on the Vaterland project), and yes, I'm glad they never demolisht the old Grünerløkka.

I’m not special happy for the map of Grünerløkka as of today, I find it hideous (but than again, I am quite strict when maps are in question). Grünerløkka isn’t borough number 2 eider. The map I first intended to use wasn’t much cooperative. However here is the official map:
http://www.bydel-grunerlokka.oslo.kommune.no/getfile.php/Bydel%

For another old part of Oslo, Vålrenga, the architect group PAGON (Progressive Architects Group, Oslo, Norway), made this proposal sometimes in the 1950s:
http://static.flickr.com/104/315250379_f161bb8f69.jpg?v=0
The only thing they wanted to preserve, was the church.

^^

be glad that commie redevelopment project never happened!
I am not saying this only to provoke, but I honestly think they were right when they made plans for knocking down Grünerløkka from the 1930's to the 1960's and replacing it with something else. For most of the 20th century, Grünerløkka was essentially a very run down part of the city. History has also proven that fixing the run-down houses have cost a lot more then it would have to replace them with something else.

http://static.flickr.com/104/315250379_f161bb8f69.jpg?v=0
Amazing! That building would have been more than 1 km long!

For another old part of Oslo, Vålrenga, the architect group PAGON (Progressive Architects Group, Oslo, Norway), made this proposal sometimes in the 1950s:
http://static.flickr.com/104/315250379_f161bb8f69.jpg?v=0
The only thing they wanted to preserve, was the church.

That is huge, and idea how long it is, or the area of the entire building complex?

I’m not special happy for the map of Grünerløkka as of today, I find it hideous (but than again, I am quite strict when maps are in question). Grünerløkka isn’t borough number 2 eider. The map I first intended to use wasn’t much cooperative. However here is the official map:
http://www.bydel-grunerlokka.oslo.kommune.no/getfile.php/Bydel%

For another old part of Oslo, Vålrenga, the architect group PAGON (Progressive Architects Group, Oslo, Norway), made this proposal sometimes in the 1950s:
http://static.flickr.com/104/315250379_f161bb8f69.jpg?v=0
The only thing they wanted to preserve, was the church.
Wow. Just wow...

Oslo was early to get a rail based mass transit system. The first horse drawn trams started to operate in 1875. The first electric trams in Scandinavia, was the ‘blue tram’ in 1894. Oslo had two different tram companies, which was identified mostly by their colour; blue (Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei) and green (Kristiania Sporveiselskap, and from 1899 also the municipality owned brown (Kristiania kommunale sporvei), but they were sold out to the ‘green trams’ already in 1905. The first suburban tram line starts as a separate private company in 1898 (A/S Holmenkollbanen). In 1928 this company starts its traffic true the first Scandinavian subway tunnel between Majorstuen (at what than was the city limits), and Nationaltheateret (the National theatre) downtown. The Oslo municipality’s subway office made lots of plans in the 1950s for to connect the different suburban tram lines together in a new subway network. Some of the lines were eventually built, and some even made longer than first planed, but others were never connected, and are still today operated by ordinary city trams (as Lillakerbanen, Ekebergbanen and Kjelsåsbanen). In 1960, the City of Oslo decided to eventually (over a longer number of years) to disconnect all tram lines and focus only on buses and subways. This politic wasn’t reverse until 1977. During these years this plan, which was published in 1973, was made:
http://static.flickr.com/107/315250392_8debb56f5a.jpg?v=0

The 1960s also saw some large-scale freeway projects for the central city, here are to illustrations of what only was referred to as the ‘City freeway’ (Bymotorveien):
http://static.flickr.com/120/315209155_249f7cf37b.jpg?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/111/315209156_a496870d0e.jpg?v=0

I am not saying this only to provoke, but I honestly think they were right when they made plans for knocking down Grünerløkka from the 1930's to the 1960's and replacing it with something else. For most of the 20th century, Grünerløkka was essentially a very run down part of the city. History has also proven that fixing the run-down houses have cost a lot more then it would have to replace them with something else.

Now I haven't been to Grünerløkka but from what I've heard it's quite a vibrant part of the city. I doubt it would have been that if the mega-komplex would have been built. It would most likely have been socially run-down thus a bad use of the initial investment. So I think the extra cost for fixing up run-down houses pays off.

The parts of central Göteborg that was knocked down and rebuild with new housing in the sixties and seventies are pretty dead when it comes to urban vibe. They have only reduced the size of the innercity. The city have lost some of it attractivness because of this and I think there is an economic price for that. When I say 'attractivness' I'm aware that the run-down states of these old areas didn't contribute to any attractivness. I mean what could have been if fixed-up.

In the late seventies and eighties Haga was the last neighbourhood that was renewed as a whole. But now finally the city had learned it's lesson. 25% percent of the houses were renovated and 75% was built from scratch but in more or less the traditional style. The street pattern, building heights etc were kept the same. It could possibly have been done even better but the example in contrast to the previous renewal projects showed that it pays off to keep these neighbourhood's structure and identity.

The renovation of Grünerløkka was definitely worth the cost.

Oslo 5, your posts are very informative and interesting, keep up the good work!:okay: Do you work in Plan og bygningsetaten?

The renovation of Grünerløkka was definitely worth the cost.

Oslo 5, your posts are very informative and interesting, keep up the good work!:okay: Do you work in Plan og bygningsetaten?
Again, thanks. No, I don't work at PBE, but I wouldn’t mind to.

Just out of curiosity, where have you found all of those old proposals?

Just out of curiosity, where have you found all of those old proposals?

They are from all around, a few are found on the net, but most are scanned from different books and printed reports. The picture of the Vålrenga model is scanned from a 35mm slide which ones belonged to one of the members of PAGON.

Urban redevelopment of Bjørvika has been proposed earlier, as in this proposal sign by the architect Arne Korsmo in 1954:

http://static.flickr.com/105/315918886_e6d009ca93.jpg?v=0

Just as Grünerløkka and all other major plans for the centre city, this plan were put on hold as all focus in the post-war years was on the development of the suburbs. As an example on that is Vaterland were slum clearance was carried out in the 1950s, but were redevelopment was done in the 1990s.
Vaterland in the 1950s:

http://www.byarkivet.oslo.kommune.no/getfile.php/byarkivet%20%28BAR%29/Internett%20%28BAR%29/Bilder/Vaterland_07.jpg

Construction of "Jernbanetorget" subway station:

http://www.byarkivet.oslo.kommune.no/getfile.php/byarkivet%20%28BAR%29/Internett%20%28BAR%29/Bilder/Vaterland_08.jpg

The only building left today is the one on the left, which today is a part of the shopping mall and office building "OsloCity".

Redevelopment of Bjørvika came back in focus after the architecture contest “Byen og fjorden” (The City and the Fjord) in 1982-83, which was inspired by the redevelopment of Baltimore inner harbour and other international waterfront projects. The first official Fjord City plan was made in 1988:

http://static.flickr.com/112/315215802_805dbbee60.jpg?v=0

This is a later, somewhat modified plan for Bjørvika from 1990. This is one of the first (if not the first) plan with the pond which recreates the medieval seashore in the so-called “Middelalderparken” (‘the Midievel park’), built were the medieval Oslo was situated:

http://static.flickr.com/113/315209149_0f1435a1df.jpg?v=0

Welcome Oslo 5! Those informative posts were really worth reading and we definitely need more threads like this - proper information.

I just noticed that Oslo had many development projects that are very similar to ones we've had here in Helsinki. As quick examples:

A big freeway running through the whole inner city area.
Aim to exterminate all trams and replace them with busses and subways. Hopefully this did not happen in our cities. Some lines were destroyed here though.
Aimo to replace entire quartals of historical buildings with huge modern monsters. Especially run-down working class districts got thorough facelifts.
...and so on.


Thank god Grunelocka survived. If the "facelift" was done, you would deeply regret it now. :)

Just found some sketches and models of the city hall in Oslo, the way it was meant to look when it won the architectural contest in 1920.
It was meant to be done in 4 years, in time for the citys 300 year anniversary (Christiania was founded in 1624), but the city council also wanted to redevelop the surrounding area and clear the slums around the harbour. The city was by this time becoming a leading maritime city and opening it up to the harbour was meant to symbolize this. An early version of the fjordcity idea perhaps.
But they had problems with financing as private investors were reluctant to buy up any of the parcels, recently bought or expropriated by the city council, before they could know for sure that the city hall was going to happen. Building did not get underway untill well in to the thirties by which time the architects had modernised their designs.
This delay had a deep impact on how the city hall and its surrounding buildings look today.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o190/jmoxon/skann0004.jpg

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o190/jmoxon/skann0003.jpg

To joamox, - thanks for the contribution.

The redevelopment of Pippervika, the area where the Oslo City hall is located was the “Bjørvika” of those days, and they used some 60 years on it. This plan from the 1930s shoves how the streets were planed after the City Hall got its final form. While the streets nearest the City Hall came to be as in this plan, the streets and blocks to the left, in the area known as Vestrevika got a new layout as work there ended first in the 1970s.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/315918890_3b92a3de6b.jpg?v=0

This plan built on the pre-modernist urban ideal of urban design, common for all plans for Oslo at that time, which was even more visible of the plans under, for Oslo’s eastwards expansion (Etterstad). This expansion, then in the neighbouring municipality of Aker, was planed in the 1920, but not built (with the exception of one block of flats, Etterstad 1) before after the 2nd WW.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/102/315215801_fd84bbc08b.jpg?v=0

Etterstad as new built in 1952:

http://www.byarkivet.oslo.kommune.no/OBA/webflyfoto/A-20027_Ue0001_067.jpg

Etterstad 1 is the square building/city block at the back (closest to the rest of the city). Under, the same building/city block is located in the lower right corner

http://www.byarkivet.oslo.kommune.no/OBA/webflyfoto/A-20027_Ue0001_065.jpg

http://www.byarkivet.oslo.kommune.no/OBA/webflyfoto/A-20027_Ue0001_065.jpg

I live at Etterstad, I can see my apartment here :banana: The area looks more empty than today.

Between Etterstad and Oslo’s Old City, lays the old working class suburb Vålerenga. This was one of the many boroughs planed for redevelopment that never become fulfilled. Today most of the old wooden houses are restored and in mint condition. Vacant lots have been filed with new housing complexes and the area has experienced a raise in status. Much of this thanks to the building of the Vålerenga tunnel, which has moved one of Oslo’s most trafficked roads, highway 190, connecting E6 and E18, out of the neighbourhood.

From an old redevelopment plan:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/315918888_41764138d0.jpg?v=0

The superstructure (model picture in b/w) posted earlier was a reaction from those who meant this plan wasn’t modern/brave enough.

Vålerenga as of today:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Norway_Oslo_Vaalerenga.jpg/800px-

That really is not my cup of tea...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Norway_Oslo_Vaalerenga.jpg/800px- oh this looks so nice, damn, a LARGE chunk of Tallinn will hopefully look like that, since we have tons of wooden house boroughs

Some asked earlier about the high-rises planed on Karl Johan. Here is (sadly) a rather low quality facsimile of Håkon Mjelva’s (Norwegian architect, former member of PAGON) propositions. One of the main participants in these planes was the theatre known as ‘Det Norske Teater’ (which whiteout exception uses ‘Nynorsk’, Norway’s 2end ‘language’ (the differences are, as probably most knows rather small). Due to the protests, the project was divided into several separate projects. In the back, towards Kristian IV’s street, the theatre is situated (1982-85 by the architects A/S 4 B Arkitekter), and in front, behind the old facades, which in large parts are only copies, lays the shopping mall Palèet.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/134/360459756_25f08ee7a8.jpg?v=0

Under, an other proposed project for Karl Johan. The street was meant to be made wider, and all buildings (from the 1800s) were to be demolished. The oldest part/buildings of old Christiania, towards the Akershus castle were meant to be restored, and in such an extent that all newer buildings (in this part both from the 1800s and 1900s were to be demolished and replaced with copies of the original buildings from the 1600s. The great loss of floor space which this rather creasy scheme would result in was meant to be replaced by the high-rises, here depicted in to different designs (these illustrations was only meant as preliminary sketches). I found these plans in a book (I can’t remember the title) at the main branch of Oslo’s public library. This book centred solely on this plan (it was meant to be promoting it).

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/360459751_1192a1cad2.jpg?v=0
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/360459752_bed8c47d33.jpg?v=0

:puke: :weird: :nuts: Thank god none of those plans were realized..
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/360459752_bed8c47d33.jpg?v=0
That was really uglier and more misplaced than the average... What were they thinking?

But they had one important thing in it: widening the Karl Johan. I don't about other's thoughts, but Karl Johan gives me a sort of claustophobic feel.

^ agree, its horrific, Ammerudblokkene up Karl Johan would be a disaster!

:puke: :weird: :nuts: Thank god none of those plans were realized..
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/360459752_bed8c47d33.jpg?v=0
That was really uglier and more misplaced than the average... What were they thinking?

It looks like the center of Stockholm. :ohno:
Glad that they didn't do the same mistake in Oslo.

More cool stuff,Oslo5.I'm not a fan of the "sunken cruise ship".Thanks once again.

..

..

Hey, I'm all for reviving this thread if anyone got any good material :)

Wow, good find. This is a really informative thread. Maybe a mod could have it stickied so it doesn't disappear again?

If anyone's interested in reading on the subject, I know there's a copy of Harald Hals's book "Drommen om Stor-Oslo" at the university library. Original print from the 1930's.

It's got a ton of amazing maps, sketches and proposals. I might go scan some of them in once I get back to Oslo.

^^The Oslo-section has two pages of threads. I don't think it should be possible to "lose" threads:)
I also remember this thread from when it was active, so...

Thanks :)

I have no pictures of the proposed high-rises on Karl Johan, but I have one of an early proposal on redevelopment of Vaterland (Postgirobygget on the left on the model):
http://static.flickr.com/107/315209145_685891e5a8.jpg?v=0

never seen this before but 2 things struck me....

1. that is amazing and i'd love to see that built somewhere and...

2. the tower looks very similar to the mock up of the filipstad hotel proposal...

That looks like New Alexandria in HALO Reach...