A continental department store

When K M Lundberg, Stockholm’s most successful retailer in the later decades of the 1800s, decided to gather his operations under a single roof, the result was Stockholm’s first continental-style department store. The building was based on drawings by Erik Josephson, who was quickly becoming Stockholm’s most popular architect and was also responsible for the design of the Daneliuska Building on the other side of Stureplan, the Grand Hotel in Saltsjöbaden and Skandinaviska Kredit’s palatial bank premises on Stora Nygatan in Gamla Stan. The facade was adorned with an extravagant mixture of styles that did not conform with conventional rules and style ideals. The building was inspired by medieval castles along the Loire, renaissance palaces in Venice, baroque churches in Germany and department stores like Printemps and La Samaritaine in Paris – with a domed tower reaching 40 meters toward the sky. The building was inaugurated on September 25, 1898.

The concept of gathering everything a well-to-do family could possibly need when it comes to clothing and design under a single roof was relatively new to Stockholm. This was a place where the growing middle class could buy clothing and decorate their homes according to the latest trends. The interior of the building was as modern as the exterior was historical, featuring customer and freight elevators, central heating and an internal phone system. The top three floors originally housed a hotel, which was soon moved to make way for the growing retail business.

The initial heyday of the department store at Stureplan was short-lived. In 1902, Lundberg joined forces with his main competitor, Joseph Sachs, who had recently taken over the retail business of his grandfather Joseph Leja. In a short time, Sachs transformed Leija’s sleepy, old-fashioned “dollar stores” into a modern business capable of attracting Stockholm’s new elite. The merged company was given the neutral name of Nordiska Kompaniet (NK).

The building at Stureplan underwent its first major renovations, turning K M Lundberg’s department store into NK. The renovations were overseen by the most popular architect of the time – Ferdinand Boberg.

After the merger, Lundberg eventually withdrew from the company and Sachs became the principal owner. He borrowed money and brought in new owners in order to build a new, grand department store. When the new NK on Hamngatan, designed by none other than Ferdinand Boberg, opened its doors in 1915, the department store on Stureplan was closed.

A new head office

Axel Ax:son Johnson, the Consul General, took over at the helm of the business group following his father’s death in 1910. He wanted a modern, practical head office for the growing business group, which now comprised the shipping company Nordstjernan, Avesta Jernverk and the trading firm A. Johnson & Co. When the building at Stureplan became vacant after NK’s move to Hamngatan, he decided to strike.

But Erik Josephson’s grandiose creation, only 15 years old at the time, was not to the Consul General’s liking. He hired Ivar Tengbom to conduct an extensive renovation. Tengbom was a young architect who would later put his mark on the Stockholm cityscape through buildings such as the Stockholm Concert Hall at Hötorget, Enskilda Banken’s head office on Kungsträdgårdsgatan, the Stockholm School of Economics on Sveavägen and Tändstickspalatset on Västra Trädgårdsgatan.

The renovations began in 1916. Almost nothing was left untouched. Fairytale romanticism and exoticism were replaced with a sense of strength, firmness and optimism.

The new offices were completed in 1919. As the scaffolding was removed, astonished Stockholmers were left to admire a decidedly more austere building. The architect himself claimed that the renovation had restored the “manhood” of the building’s previously “genderless exterior.”

The domed tower had been replaced by a decorative crow’s nest. The decadent, perfumed fairytale castle had been transformed into a vessel cleaving the waves of the future.

Stronghold of enterprise

The Consul General’s business group was now manufacturing and exporting goods that would be shipped across the world by Nordstjernan’s vessels. The room that once served as the department store’s entrance from Stureplan was decorated with ship models and maps. The floor, clearly visible through the shop window, featured a gigantic globe with models of Nordstjernan’s vessels. The position of the models was changed once a day as their real-life counterparts made their away along Nordstjernan’s trade routes. For Stockholmers passing through Stureplan, this was a tangible reminder of the outside world and the increasingly important role of Swedish enterprise on the world stage.

Under the management of the Consul General, company after company was acquired. At Nordstjernan’s head office, the task of managing these companies and maintaining control of their finances and accounts had become increasingly complicated. The company records in the building’s basement grew every year – business correspondence, earnings reports, accounting records, contracts and annual accounts.

35 years after the transformation from department store to head office, it was time for the next major renovation. The third generation of the Ax:son Johnson family was ready to make its mark on the building and the business. Axel Ax:son Johnson (the Mining Engineer) succeeded his father as CEO of Nordstjernan in 1956. The same year marked the start of the building’s renovation, which would continue for eight years. As in 1919, the Tengbom architect firm was once again hired to complete the task, now with Ivar’s son Anders Tengbom in charge.

In an homage to the company’s history, the ship’s cabin from the M/S Pedro Christophersen – with its paneled walls, scupper holes and original furniture – was installed on the fifth floor.

The building was cramped, so a sixth floor was added. The building permit was granted on the condition that the building’s exterior silhouette was to remain the same. The addition proved to be a complicated and time-consuming project.

The top floors of the light well in the middle of the building were rebuilt and came to house a library, newsroom and storage area.

The once four-story stairwell was restored to two stories. In the remaining stairwell, known as the Johnson Hall, Ivar Tengbom’s 1920s classicism was replaced by a 1950s decor, with red wall-to-wall carpeting and brass banisters.

The Nordstjernan building today

When Tomas Billing was recruited as CEO of Nordstjernan in 1998, he joined the company from his position as CEO of the property company Hufvudstaden. By this time, the building had several tenants. Other than Föreningssparbanken’s branch office along Biblioteksgatan, no other premises in the building were open to the public. The head office of the forestry group SCA occupied three floors.

One of Tomas Billing’s first initiatives as CEO was to modernize the building. Some 1 200 square meters of retail space were opened in 2000, restoring the old department store to its original function – at least on the ground floor. Once again, the design for the building came from Tengbom’s architects, now represented by Ivan Krejci.

Other areas of the building were also renovated over time. After SCA moved out of the fourth floor, Nordstjernan was gradually able to return to its old executive floor. A small pavilion for meetings and conferences was built on the roof, with a jointed teak terrace. The nautical feeling was reinforced by the crow’s nest and flagpole that crowned the roof over the entrance, a remnant of Ivar Tengbom’s renovation in 1919.