Talk:Vyborg Library

A fact from Vyborg Library appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 October 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Viipuri Municipal Library (pictured), built to Aalto's groundbreaking design in 1935, was abandoned for a decade following the transfer of Viipuri to the Soviet Union?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/October.

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Undulating auditorium ceiling

I was in Viipuri on August 16, 2003, and no only was the auditorium ceiling being repaired on that very day, but I managed to graffiti my name onto the supporting carcassing. Anyone who wishes to go there and dismantle the ceiling will be able to verify this.

Surely it is therefore in error to say that the ceiling has not been repaired.

I was last there in September 2003 at the DOCOMOMO seminar. Then the small area of ceiling that had been symbolically reconstructed in 1998 (the Aalto centenary) was still in place. That's what you perhaps thought was part of the repaired ceiling. In November 2006 I contacted the Finnish architect who is directing the current on-going works, and he told me that they have not yet begun on the ceiling but have been finishing off the floors and the roofs, and undersides of the flat ceilings with the circular rooflights. They hope to start on the famous auditorium ceiling in 2007. But the big problem has been financing; they can only proceed as new funds arrive, which comes a bit at a time. They even recieved a small amount of money from the Getty Foundation in USA. So, as it stands in December 2006 the ceiling has NOT been RECONSTRUCTED - because it is a reconstruction that is necessary. --TTKK 22:34, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Interior

I can swear that I visited a bookstore in Berlin the interior of which was laid out in exactly the same manner as in this picture of this library's insides. Can anyone provide an explanation? Unfortunately, I have no memory of what that bookstore was called, but it's just too perfect of a match to be of mere coincedence.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 22:07, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Aalto designed several buildings for Berlin, but I don't think these were bookstores. I have seen a 1930s photograph of the ceiling in question. It is almost identical to the modern picture on www.aalto.vbg.ru. --Ghirla ^-трёп- 09:06, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Not that it helps, but then it is me who doesn't remember the details. I can imagine that the building could have been re-purposed, though, but that's just pure speculation.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 12:33, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Disowned by Aalto on account of renovation?

According to the Lonely Planet guide, [1] Alvar Aalto "disowned it when the russians renovated it with a granite facade." Searching the web I can't find any real authoritative confirmation of this, though. Perhaps a Finnish speaker would have better luck. I have an old photo of said facade, but wasn't sure how notable it would be. 24.18.233.243 (talk) 06:58, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately the Lonely Planet guide is way off on 2 counts. First the building never received a "granite facade" - this is probably confusion with the case of Eliel Saarinen's Vyvorg railway station, originally in a Jugend / Art Nouveau style, receiving the Stalinist "realsit classicism" treatment after "restoration" after the war. Aalto himself made a trip to Leningrad by train in the early 1960s, popping in to see the library on the way. It had been "modestly" restored by the Russians. His words (as quoted in the Schildt biography) is that "the building is still there but the architecture has disappeared."--TTKK (talk) 07:16, 22 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It did used to have a (rather jarring) granite entrance. From the WMF award brochure: "Surrounding the main entrance, which is adjacent to the glass facade, new soapstone cladding replaced the Soviet-era black polished granite. The soapstone was sourced from the same quarry in Juuka, Finland, as the original." 140.142.144.84 (talk) 20:28, 16 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]