ABSTRACT
The Pohjola Building was designed by the rm Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen in 1899 and opened in 1901. While study of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Finnish architecture has traditionally revolved around the idea of a National Style the Pohjola Buildings provides a good entry point to discussion about the relationships between national and international concerns in the development of Finnish architecture around 1900. Finnish National Romanticism can be briey described as the urge to give architecture a Finnish character, typically through the use of facades of Finnish stone and forms suggesting local architectural traditions and ornament linked to local ora and fauna.
