Accountor Tower is a high-rise office building, designed by architects Castrén–Jauhiainen–Nuuttila, located in the

Keilaniemi Keilaniemi (; ; ) is a district in the south-eastern part of Espoo, Finland. Geography Keilaniemi is bordered by the university district of Otaniemi to the north, the commercial/residential district of Tapiola to the west, the Keilalahti bay se ...

district of

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

, just outside

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, the capital of

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. With a height of 84 metres (274 feet), it is currently the fifth tallest habitable building in Finland, and was the tallest building in Finland from its construction in 1976 until 2006, when the Cirrus residential building in

Vuosaari Vuosaari () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsi ...

surpassed its height. It was also the tallest office building in Finland until 2025 when it was surpassed by the Horisontti building in

Kalasatama Kalasatama (; ; literally translated "fish port") is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. The area is officially part of the Sörnäinen district; and like Sörnäinen, Kalasatama is located a little more than one kilometre north fro ...

, Helsinki. Formerly known as the Fortum Head Office and before that Neste Tower, as of May 2018 it is the headquarters of the Nordic financial software company Accountor. When Imatran Voima merged with Neste, the merged company Fortum took the building as its headquarters. However, in the demerger six years later, the building was not returned to Neste Oil, but was retained by Fortum, the electricity producer. Consequently, Neste Oil had to construct a new office building nearby. In 2017 the building was sold to Regenero Oy. Fortum's head office moved in the start of 2018 into a multi-space office located near the old office at Keilalahdentie 2-4. In addition to Fortum, the new head office building houses Tieto Oyj and Microsoft Oy. Regenero Oy leased the building to Accountor in early 2018.

Overview

The tower has twenty floors overground and two floors underground, and its height is 83.6 metres.Fortum
at Emporis GmbH. Accessed on 7 March 2014. The total floor surface area of the building is 25,444 square metres. The facade of the tower is built of white

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

from

Sipoo Sipoo (; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the municipality i ...

and the windows have a blue tint. The cross section of the tower is rectangular in shape, and both ends of the rectangle shape have parts extending outward from the main mass. Most of the office floors consist of open office spaces, with the tower having enough office space for over one thousand workers. The base of the tower includes a lunch restaurant and exercise spaces.Fortum Keilaniemessä
Fortum Oyj. Accessed on 1 May 2014. Next to the tower is a three-story high additional building called Keilalampi, built in 1994. It is built of steel and has a cone-shaped glass roof. The Keilalampi building was designed by the architect bureau CJN, the successor to the architect bureau Castrén-Jauhiainen-Nuuttila.

History

Construction

Construction of the tower started in 1974 and it reached its full height in 1975. The building was completed in 1976 and taken into use on 7 October in the same year.Rautiainen, Arto

''Rakennuslehti'' 1 April 2004. Accessed on 7 March 2014. At the time of the building's construction,

Uolevi Raade Tauno Uolevi Raade (5 July 1912 – 13 May 1998) was a Finnish industrialist and a long-time managing director of Neste (now ''Neste Oil''), the Finnish national oil refining company. Raade was born in Turku, and received university degrees ...

was the manager of

Neste Neste Oyj (international name: Neste Corporation; former names Neste Oil Corporation and Fortum Oil and Gas Oy; ) is an oil refining and marketing company located in Espoo, Finland. It produces, refines and markets oil products, provides eng ...

, which merged and later demerged with Imatran Voima, the predecessor of

Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finland, Finnish Government of Finland, state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. It mainly focuses on the Nordic countries, Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generate ...

. As a result, the building is sometimes referred to as ''Raaden hammas'' (lit. "Raade's tooth"). Raade oversaw the construction of the building carefully, down to the details in the interior. He also wanted that the executive offices at the top floor should have a view both to the

Naantali Naantali (; ) is a municipalities of Finland, town in Southwest Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important centre of tourism in the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located west of Turku. The town h ...

oil refinery in the west and to the

Porvoo Porvoo (; ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located on the south coast of the country, on the Gulf of Finland. Porvoo lies in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Porvoo is approximately , while the Porvoo sub-region, sub-re ...

oil refinery in the east. However, it is not possible to see to Naantali from the building. In 1994 Neste expanded its head office by building a lower expansion building called "Keilalampi" next to the tower, giving it the official name ''Valovirta''.

Later use

After the fusion of Neste and Imatran Voima the building was transferred to the ownership of the new power company Fortum in 1998, and the company

Neste Oil Neste Oyj (international name: Neste Corporation; former names Neste Oil Corporation and Fortum Oil and Gas Oy; ) is an oil refining and marketing company located in Espoo, Finland. It produces, refines and markets oil products, provides ...

which separated from Fortum built a new head office near the original building. On 30 April 2014 Fortum announced plans to renovate the tower into a residential building. The underground floors would have hosted businesses while the Keilalampi building would remain in office use. The company saw that hosting modern transformable office spaces in the building was not possible. The Fortum Retirement Foundation owned the tower as well as the Keilalampi building, while the four lots in the area were owned by Fortum. In 2017, Fortum and the Fortum Retirement Foundation sold the building to Regenero Oy, a joint company by YIT and HGR Property Partners. From 2017 to 2018 the Fortum head office moved to the nearby former head office of

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

, which also hosts the head office of

Tieto Tietoevry Corporation (natively Tietoevry Oyj, Tieto prior to June 2019) is a Finnish IT software and service company providing IT and product engineering services. Tietoevry is domiciled in Espoo, Finland, and the company's shares are listed o ...

and the Finland head office of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. In 2018 the plan to convert the building into residential use was abandoned. The financial software company Accountor moved into the premises in late 2019. At the same time the building was renamed as the Accountor Tower.Accountor Enterprise on muuttanut Keilaniemeen
/ref> In spring 2020

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas. It is a business-focused organization which works in servers, storage, networking, containerization software and ...

moved its Finland head office to the Accountor Tower.

References

External links