Handelsbanken

The Westerbotten Enskilda Bank building by Rådhusparken (City Hall Park) is the result of an invitational architectural competition in 1893. Viktor Åström, who had designed Stora Hotellet’s building on the other side of the park, had previously been asked to submit a proposal, but this did not prevail.
Stockholm architect Ernst Stenhammar won the competition. Like Isaac Clason, a member of the competition jury, he belonged to the generation of architects striving for authenticity in materials and facade compositions that reflected the building’s interior.

The bank building expresses power and reliability with a design idiom associated with Sweden’s Vasa palaces: facades of red brick, window frames of light grey natural stone, rounded corners and massive staircase towers.

Källa: Umeå kommun
Text och Foto: Lena Tengnér