The Eliel Square ( fi, Elielinaukio, sv, Elielplatsen) is a

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

on the west side of the Helsinki Central Station in the heart of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland. It is named after the railway station designer

Eliel Saarinen Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. He was also the father of famed architect Eero Saarinen. Lif ...

. The square is for the most part the departure and arrival platforms for regional buses. At the northern end of the square is the

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a divisio ...

Hotel and at the southern end is the restaurant

Vltava Vltava ( , ; german: Moldau ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Labe ...

. On the west side are the and Sanomatalo.

History

On the site of the square used to be a small railway yard, an express luggage wing, which served as a kind of wholesale arrangement area. After its demolition, the area was used as a

parking space A parking space, parking place or parking spot is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. The space may be delineated by road surface markings. Th ...

. The new town plan south of Töölönlahti was completed in 1996, and it also included the Eliel Square. The area then passed into city ownership in accordance with an agreement between the city and the country.

New Eliel

The New Eliel ( fi, Uusi Eliel; sv, Nya Eliel) is a project launched in 2017, in which the square will be developed, among other things, through new construction. Construction can be a business, operational,

service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...

and cultural space, but it should take into account the historical nature of the area and preserve the Vltava building, which is more than a hundred years old. The upper limit of the building height is about 44 meters above sea level, i.e. the construction must not be higher than the Post Office. The area enables the creation of new jobs in the city center with good public transport connections. The project is also intended to develop the flow of pedestrian traffic around the railway station. The total construction target in the planning area was initially 40,000 square meters, but it has since been decided to reduce the volume target for the project by about a quarter. An international architectural competition was held at the end of 2020 to develop Eliel and also the adjacent Railway Square, of which five proposals for the competition were announced in March 2021.

Gallery

References

External links

New Eliel
(in English) {{coord, 60, 10, 18.01, N, 024, 56, 21.98, E, region:FI-18_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Squares in Helsinki Bus stations in Finland Kluuvi