Helsinki

If you’re lucky, one day you’ll find yourself in a place that feels like it was created specifically for you. The weather, the people, the architecture all seem both familiar yet energizing. For me, Helsinki is my heart song.                                                   

The cobble stoned streets are graced by stately trees. The city is dotted with green spaces. The city centered is anchored by Senate Square. The square is surrounded by government buildings on the south and east, the University of Helsinki on the west, and the Lutheran Cathedral of Helsinki on the north side. 

The design of the square was ordered by Tsar Alexander II in the 1850’s.  As he wanted to unify the architectural feeling of the square, all of the buildings on southern side had new facades. The design of the façade was dictated by the architect, Carl Engel. He also designed the cathedral which was completed after his death. 

Lutherans churches can be architectural stunning but are typical unadorned. Alexander II felt the cathedral much too plain and he ordered the addition of gold ornamentation and statues of the 12 apostles to be added to the exterior.

The Finns are quite proud of their architectural heritage. Eliel Saarinen was born in Finland in 1873. Before moving to the US in 1923, he was the force behind city planning in Tallinn, Budapest and Helsinki. He designed the Helsinki central railroad station. Upon his immigration to the US, residential planning moved to Nordic classism, a stern, slightly decorated, functional design.

One of Saarinen’s first projects in the US was the design of the Chicago Lakefront. His son, born in Finland in 1906, also immigrated to the US. Eero attended the Yale school of architecture and two of his significant designs are the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Dulles Airport. In architectural circles, it is said the Finns have produced more prominent architects, certainly on a per capita basis, than any other country.

More recently, two brothers, Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, won a competition for the design of a church in the Töölö parish. They initially feared that using rocks for walls would be too radical, but they learned that the granite rocks would made excellent natural acoustics. Their final plan proposed using the natural rock on the site rather than clear it away and embed the church directly into the granite. 

The result is stunning. We were fortunate to visit during an informal piano concert.  My first impression on entering the building was a bit of shock at the discordant elements —, granite, copper and arched supports. I felt as if I were on a Star Wars set. However, after a few minutes, the elements began work together. I felt centered. Unlike a gothic cathedral with towering arches, where the verticality symbolizes the grandeur of God and the insignificance of man, the Rock Church connects you to the environment. The church capacity is only 700.

The pictures attempt to show the 24 m copper cove ceiling. The cove is made of 13.6 miles of copper plated strips. The interior granite walls are effectively unfinished, therefore the heights vary. Each skylight had to be customized. The largest skylights are above the altar.

For architectural comparison, the pictures on this page are from the Russian Orthodox Church in the city center near Senate Square.

Even more recent, Helsinki redeveloped the area northwest of the railroad station. The area has exclusively modern architecture. The library was the last building completed, just a few years ago. The picture below was pulled from the web. Compare it to the picture I took at the bottom of the page.

In addition to an intriguing exterior design, the library serves as a social center for the city.

The main level has children learning and
competing in chess. The main level has
sewing machines, music rooms, sound booths and equipment for fabricating decals. The top level has children’s reading material and several areas were mothers and there very young children can meet and socialize.

The modern art building was designed by an American, Stephen Holl .  I didn’t have time to go inside😢

We walked through the Concert Center, Musiikkitalo, on the way to the library. It is quite impressive.

Helsinki was also a food paradise. Monday night we went to Kapelli. This restaurant, established in 1867, is located on the esplanade near the harbor. The meal was superb, a three onion tart with spring pea mousse, goat cheese Brie and strawberry salad and for the main, reindeer steak with a mushroom red wine sauce accompanied by creamed potatoes that must have been at least 60% butter.

I had planned to eat light this evening, you can’t have a feat every night. So, I picked a restaurant less than 200 ft from the hotel. Cou Cou Vert was an pleasant, but unpretentious corner restaurant

with white linen on the tables and tastefully petite flowers arrangements on the bar. The service was superb. The unsung delight of the meal was bread and butter. The bread was whole wheat sourdough. The butter was Finnish 82% butter with a leek/parsley infusion. After incorporating the leek parsley consommé, the mixture is aerated.

Even though I could have simply had bread, butter and wine for dinner, I orderedI  a salmon tartar appetizer with the chef’s variation on moussaka as a main. The moussaka was layered, topped with thinly sliced flashed fried zucchini and grated Parmesan. Dan had Duck à l’orange with an endive salad. The duck leg was perfectly prepared and the accompanying sauce was flavorful and worked well with duck.

I’m quite sad that I only had one full day in Helsinki. Tomorrow, we’re off to Oslo.

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The interior of the Kappeli restaurant, pulled off the web

Real estate is quite expensive in the city. A one bedroom apartment is 500,000 to 700,000 euros.

Finnish is a phonetic language- if you want a long vowel sound, the letter is printed twice such as

Dan was quite happy to see this sign in the hotel elevator. 7 AM seemed early, but it’s nice when everyone has something that’s especially for them.

Sculpture between the library and concert hall.