Norr Mälarstrand

Story

Norr Mälarstrand is a street on Kungsholmen in central Stockholm, Sweden. Bordering Riddarfjärden, the eastern-most bay of Lake Mälaren, Norr Mälarstrand is a southbound boulevard stretching 1,4 km west from the Stockholm City Hall to the southern end of the street Sankt Eriksgatan. The most notable structures along the street are the series of functionalist residential buildings lined-up along its western part. The park facing the waterfront south of the street is popular for walks.HistoryA first proposal for a boulevard on the location in 1863 - 64, intended to embellish the area with a westbound entrance to the city similar to Strandvägen, the simultaneously proposed eastbound boulevard which, in contrast to the former, was actually built and became the grandiose front of the eastern district Östermalm. For Norr Mälarstrand, however, it would take another half-century before construction work on the Stockholm City Hall (1911 - 23) resulted in the urbanization of the area.A garrison of engineers stationed along the shore prevented an extension of the street until they were relocated elsewhere in the early 1920s. By that time, new garden cities in the suburbs had resulted in an increasing need for new western approach into the city. In 1928 the city bought the land from the Crown and a plan for the area designed by Albert Lilienberg the same year was accepted in 1930. Stepped gables then present were removed and replaced by the evenly spaced functionalist silhouettes — the nine floors of which resulted in comparisons with cities in America and the epithet "Manhattan of Stockholm".