 |
 |
 |
 |
High-Rise Apartment Building Viitatorni
Viitaniementie 14, Jyväskylä
1957 - 1962
The high-rise apartment building Viitatorni makes part of the Viitaniemi housing scheme, designed by Alvar Aalto. The earliest plans are from 1957 and consisted exclusively of two-storey row houses on the sloped site. They were arranged in two to three chains, similar to the ROT row house in the Sunila scheme. However this plan was not realized. In the end, Alvar Aalto built the thirteen-storey tower block, which is called Viitatorni. The high-rise building was designed and built from1957 to 1962. Reaching a height of 39 meters, the Viitatorni Tower was the tallest building in Jyväskylä until the Innova office building was completed in 2002. On the ground floor are located commercial premises and a caretaker's apartment.
The earliest drawings of this building are reminiscent of the Neue Vahr block in Bremen. In contrast to the well knwon fan-shaped plans, the realized building has a stepped facade in an effort to link it with the surrounding houses designed by Jorma Järvi. The tower originally contained 73 apartments of different sizes, which range from studio flats with kitchenette to three-room flats with kitchen. There were no family flats included in the original design, and the building has no balconies.