Ostermalmstorg
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Östermalmstorg
Location
Östermalmstorg 4, S-11442 Stockholm, Sweden
Ostermalmstorg Pictures
 View From South West |
 View From South East |
 View From North East |
 View From North West |
 View of Saluhall and the Metro entrance |
 Sculpture in the square |
 Small Shop |
To view a 360 degree view of Ostermalmstorg, check it out here: http://stockholm.360cities.net/fs.html?loc=locations/Ostermalmstorg.p36
Context Maps
This is a map of Stockholm's Tunnelbana, there is over 68 miles of track that travel through Stockholm.
North Dakota State University Campus Map
AutoCAD outlines
Case Study Ostermalmstorg. Stockholm, Sweden.
Comparative Case Study Memorial Union Bus Stop, North Dakota State University. Fargo, North Dakota.
Location
Östermalmstorg is located in the Östermalm district of Stockholm. Östermalm is a large central district which is known for its high housing prices and high-end markets and shops. There are two large scale green spaces which are a few blocks from this space, one being the Royal Library and the other being the green space surrounding the Church of Stockholm, Östermalmstorg. It is also approximately four blocks from the inlets of the Baltic Sea.
Success/Failure / Strengths/Weaknesses
The Ostermalmstorg plaza has its strengths and weaknesses. It has small shops set up under tents in a flea market style. This causes a lot of people traffic moving through the space. Also, this is a main entrance for the underground subway. People are constantly going in and out of this area which causes a lot of confusion. The entrance to the subway needs to be bigger because the present entrance is much too small for this high traffic area. Although, it does keep in theme with many of the other subway entrances. The tacky looking tents either need to be permanent structures or better looking tents. We feel that this space is still highly successful because of the many opportunities for enjoyment. There is a lot of open area for people to meet.
Design/Programmatic Goals
The main goal of the plaza is to bring people into one space uniting, and interacting with others. This is achieved by having small shops set up, a famous and delicious eating area at the Saluhallen which is second to none in the entire area for restaurants and food markets, and by having a main central entrance to the underground subway.
Stockholm Metro
In Stockholm, a light rail system had been built underground in 1933, yet in 1950 it was all converted to metro standard. This brought expansion to the metro and now has become what it is today.
Stockholm's metro, otherwise known as the Tunnelbana, is home to the world's longest art exhibition at about 68 miles. In 90 of the 100 Metro stations, passengers can enjoy an exciting, beautiful and varied art experience in the form of sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, inscriptions, and reliefs.
Around 140 artists have helped to create this art along the Metro lines. An additional few hundred artists have added temporary art features. Since the mid 1980s the Stockholm Metro has been seriously affected by graffiti. Previously a train on which graffiti had been painted could remain in service for weeks and graffiti could remain in place at stations for months if not for years. Nowadays, however, trains with graffiti are taken out of service immediately and graffiti at stations is regularly cleaned up within a few days. The cost of graffiti and other types of vandalism has been calculated at approximately SEK 100 million per year (SEK 115 million in 2006.When vandalism such as graffiti is found it is immediately removed from the walls. All of the art in the Tunnelbana is all done by professional artists whom get paid for their work.
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History of Östermalmstorg
During the reign of Scandinavian king Eric of Pomerania, a royal cow barn was constructed for the villager's cattle of Vadla. Then in the 17th century inhabitants of Stockholm were allowed to house cattle there. At the time Stockholm was growing exponentially and the city had surrounded the cow yard. Inhabitants living around the yard had begun to complain about livestock causing damage to surrounding property. Then in 1639, parts of the cow yard had begun to be built up with the eastern side still being used for cattle. Although, in 1679 the area became a military exercise field. Most of the inhabitants around the area were extremely poor but during the following 200 years some higher officers called the area home.
By 1880, the area was redesigned with elegant houses on a street and avenue grid system. Many of the official buildings of Stockholm were built here because the area was still owned by the Royal Crown. In the following years many country's embassies were constructed including the US Embassy.
Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity (Our Reading Assignment)
BY: Low, Setha, Dana Taplin, and Suzanne Scheld
Chapter one consists of a list of rules and constraints to maintain a culturally diverse urban space that is used by all. The following rules were advocated by the New York City Planning Department and now are nationally accepted. The first rule talked about safety and how it was hard to bring many cultures together and keep it safe for all. In the past fifty or so years many of one culture began to call a space their own while it was not accepted for one of another culture to use the space and then would be looked down upon. Many people began to move to suburbs where their own specific niche would be grouped together as well as the same social class. What many cities have begun to do is use Big Brother technologies for safety.
In one example, they talk about a park in Latin America and how they tried to change the way the park was used because their had been a lot soliciting for sex, and lower class individuals that often frequent the space, but it was still used by all members of society just in separate parts of the park. The city planners then redesigned the space and it just made the situation worse. Gang members from Guatemala began making this their own which led to murders, cases of rape, and abduction.
This led to cultural rights and ethics, it became about doing whats right in the situation. The reading had talked about the three r's, restitution, restriction, and retention.
Restitution of cultural properties to their countries of origin. Restriction of the import and export of their countries of origin. Retention of the rights of different parties.
In chapter two, many topics and issues are talked about like history and social context. This chapter starts out with some brief history and fun little facts. The first urban parks in the United States were relatively unimproved commons, and places originally set aside for grazing cattle and training militia. J.B. Jackson stresses the essentially political character of these urban plazas in them on is revealed as a citizen. It continues into more topics, I will summarize each of them for you. The first topic is “The Landscape Park” The urban landscape parks, beginning with Central Park in New York, have quite different origins. Urban parks are much larger than squares and commons; they were designed as refuges from the city. It then explains that Prospect Park, also in New York, was a perfect example with the pastures, woods, gathering places, and footpaths. But, unlike the other urban squares, Prospect Park kept the city view out with high hedges. With the park movement there were three main topics: philosophical, theological, and nationalistic sources.
The next topic is “The Movement Spreads” Rather than preserving existing landscapes of high scenic and ecological value, like so many later projects, these early parks were designed and built often on degraded sites. Olmsted himself fought to keep the balance in his parks in favor of natural surfaces, warding off demands to give space over for recreational facilities, museums, zoos, monuments, and memorials. It explains how the park movement is getting more recognition but still doesn’t seem to be getting very far.
“The Recreational Facility Park” The reformers of that era believed that park planners needed to take an activist stance in bringing the benefits of wholesome recreation to urban people, especially the children. The goal was first realized in the playground, a facility provided with specialized recreational spaces and equipment and staffed by play directors. Orchard beach was entirely constructed by means of filling in the intertidal area to connect two former islands with a mainland peninsula. The park featured a crescent-shaped beach and concrete promenade, the beach sand having been hauled in from forty miles away. Here there were areas for handball and basketball.
“National Parks and Heritage Sites” What I got out of this section was that Nations parks are created to serve three purposes, 1. Scenic values, 2. Scientific values, and 3. Historical values. The interpretation of these values has changed over the years. Municipal Parks mainly provide recreation, national parks enshrine places important to the national identity.
“The Politics of Funding and Service to Park Users” National Parks operate in a political context very different from municipal and regional parks. Federal funding makes national parks generally nuch less dependent upon or responsive to local political conditions. Most municipal parks depend on local public funds.
And last but not least “Conclusion” recreation is always an important park value, but the presence of other values makes the landscape of park purposes and uses considerably richer. Even local parks exhibit important differences in use and character, and in their histories, that make for complex management issues. Urban national parks, like all national parks. Operate under explicit, publicly disseminated management objectives. These generally balanced the competing goals of recreation and preservation, usually making recreation values secondary to the various preservation interests in any given park. Among national heritage sites like Independence and Ellis Isand, preservation and interpretation of historic values is surely the management priority. Yet Independence is used by some local residents and downtown office workers for passive recreational activity, such as walking and sitting, eating, meeting friends, and so on. The national recreation areas like Gateway were established to open up scenic waterfront areas to metropolitan recreation, yet they increasingly emphasize preservation of relict natural environments and interpretation of historic structures.
Sources of Information
Historical information: Wikipedia at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96stermalm
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/11/1120_metro_stations/source/7.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Metro
Images: Google Earth and Windows Live Maps were used for aerial and bird's eye images
