Arkitekt Christies gate 4abc

Street location
Arkitekt Christies gate 4a-b-c

Kicking off with the first batch of architecture photos with a building complex in, as the title says, Arkitekt Christies gate 4 a-b-c. Two upper maps show you the location of the street within the inner city of Trondheim and my more than brilliant Photoshop skills indicate the building in question 🙂

I will keep this layout concept for all of the ensuing posts: maps with locations + images and words, where applicable. There’s things to translate from Norwegian too, so I’ll be returning to posts and update them with more info and more photos.

This building complex is one of my favourite ones in the city and I keep returning to photograph it. The images posted here are taken on different days, in different weather conditions and with different equipment as it is evident from the photos (Canon’s 10-20mm lens makes for quite some distortions).

I heard some people referring to the building as ‘Det Engelske kvarter’ or ‘The English Quarter’, but I wonder whether that should in fact include the entire block? Guess I’ll have to dig deeper and find out more about it. UPDATE: Nope, Arkitektur i 1000 år : en arkitekturguide for Trondheim mentions solely this building by that name.

Even though the street was named after an architect, Mr Christie had nothing to do with the building. It was rather another man, the most prolific Jugendstil architect in Trondheim, Johan Osness, who is also responsible for a number of other houses and buildings on the same block. Images will follow in future posts. The ensemble at Arkitekt Christies gate 4 a-b-c was built in 1904.

arkitektur-guide-str-113

 

UPDATE MAY 2017

Couple of months ago I had to pick something up at this address and finally got to see the interior staircase, stain-glassed windows and one of the apartments. It wasn’t really appropriate to ask to photograph someone’s private living space, so I resorted to documenting the rest. I can tell you though that the apartment in question was completely refurbished and had no redeeming historical features left. #sad

 

6 thoughts on “Arkitekt Christies gate 4abc”

  1. Pingback: Arkitekt Christies gate 11 – Jugendstil in Trondheim

  2. My grandfather Herman Piene grew up in this building. The family had the 2nd floor apartment from 1904 through 1952. Caspar Christian Piene ran a couple of companies and an insurance agency. He lived here with his wife, 12 children and 3 staff. During WWII it was down to Caspar’s elderly widow Gunhild and two daughters whom the Germans cut off in one corner of the apartment and used the rest for themselves. After the war, the family took the whole apartment back. I have some old b&w photos of the inside of the apartment. I assume at this point the huge apartment for 17 people has been subdivided into much smaller units.

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  3. Hi Steven,
    Thanks for reaching out and sharing a piece of your fascinating family history. I’ll be happy to publish your images of the interior if you want to share them. Recently I had a chance to see one of the apartments on the top floor of entrance B and it was quite small, and sadly, very modern with no historical features preserved in its interior. Also, I’ve seen an add for a studio apartment being rented in the same complex on FINN.no looking identical, that is, completely refurbished. It would seem that the extent of heritage protection extends only as far as the façade and outside features of the building.

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      1. I finally found the photos from inside the Ark Christies gt – 4 B 2nd floor circa 1920’s
        how do I send them to you?

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