ABSTRACT
The new Rådhus or city hall, designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson in 1930 and completed in 1950, is part of the redevelopment of downtown Oslo in the early twentieth century that ordered the growing town and reconnected it to the waterfront. The city hall is a nearly symmetrical building that has a dual role of affronting the city while marking the waterfront and the city’s connection with the fjord along its northeast-southwest axis. While it has an entry facing the harbor, its main entry affronts the semicircular Fridtjof Nansen Square to the northeast which aligns with Roald Amundsens Street, which becomes University Street. These streets lead to Oslo University and the National Gallery to the northeast. Bisecting these districts is the linear Student Square dominated by the Palace, just off the plan to the northwest, and Eidsvolls Squares terminated by Stortinget, the Parliament Building, to the southeast.
