Kjøbenhavns Raadhus - Hovedbiblioteket.info

however as 1896 the City Hall was roofed, but it was not
before 1900 and 1901 that the various municipal
departments entered into possession of their respective
quarters, and it was in January 1903 that the City
Corporation gathered for the first time in the Assembly Hall
in the Central Building.
On the completion of the Banqueting Hall, Sept. 12,
1905, the City of Copenhagen inaugurated its new City Hall
with a grand festivity. When the audit of the various
expenditures was made, it was found that the whole project
from its inception to the completion of the structure
amounted to a grand total of 6,804,352 Crowns (£ 378,000).
In this amount is, however, included the cost of the site,
amounting to about one million Crowns, and also the laying
out and arrangement of the surroundings, at a cost of about
825,000 Crowns. In the original scheme it was laid down as
a condition, that the architect should also include the
surroundings of the building in the design.
Beyond the small place immediately in front of the City
Hall, Nyrop has contrived a depression with a figured
pavement, the so-called „Mussel-shell", in order to conceal
the fact that the space in front of the City Hall slopes
slightly towards the building (Fig. 224. 225. 273. 274).
On the southwest side of the building is a garden, laid
out by Mr. Edv. Glaesel, enclosed on three sides by a high
railing, with corner pavilions. In the place between the
Mussel-shell pavement and the garden, on the north west
side of the garden, stands the „Dragon Fountain", executed
in bronze from models by Thorwald Bindesböll and Joakim
Skovgaard (Fig. 162-169). If the cost of the surroundings,
not essentially a part of the building itself, is deducted from
the total, the construction and furnishing of the City Hall
will have cost about 4,700,000 Crowns (£ 250,000). Among
Nyrop's artistic colleagues must be mentioned Anders
Bundgaard, sculptor, who has executed the greater part of
the granite plastic work (Fig. 68-72. 82. 84. 119. 126. 175.
177. 179. 190. 191. 227. 237. 239. 282-83), and Jens
Möller-Jensen, Ornamental Decorator, who has directed the
artistic ornamentation of the corridors etc., the motives of
which are mostly taken from sea-plants, and the lower
fauna, and are executed in watercolours on dry plaster (al
secco) (Fig. 142-149).
When Nyrop's final design was submitted for
consideration before the Municipal Council, objection was
raised that the design did not conform to any one historical
style,-which was indeed true. The tendency had been to
demand of recent and contemporary architecture in
Denmark, a conformity with one or another of the accepted
traditional styles. In Nyrop's work the influence of North
Italian Gothic was discernible, and the half story with the
semi-circular perforations on the front building, is a motive
the artist has adapted from a group of 16th century Danish
manorhouses, whilst the line of windows to the principal
floor bears the impress of Northern Renaissance. Thus the
style lacked the unities of time and place, but, as was
remarked by a colleague of Nyrop during the course of the
discussion in the City Council Nyrop had observed
everything, and had adapted what was essential to his
purpose, yet had avoided plagiarism. He had succeeded in
amalgamating his various impressions so as at length to
produce a design stamped by personality, and of an
individual character, yet in accordance with the artist's
conception of a civic building, befitting the Capital City of
Denmark.
The ground-plan is a rectangle, whose larger sides
measure 127,11 m. The front elevation has a length of 71,24
m., and the back elevation 70,77 m. The main-building,
consists of a facade and two wings, and together with the
central building encloses the covered court, known as the
Council Hall (Fig. 223-40. 280). The departmental offices
are situated on the ground and first floors. On the first floor,
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to one side of the main entrance, are situated the offices of
the Mayor of the first division and his councillors,
controlling the educational and statistical departments; on
the other side are situated the offices of the mayor of the
second division and his councillors controlling the City's
finances (Fig. 230-32). On the second, the principal floor,
are situated the ceremonial apartments, and also the lobbies
and offices of the elected chairman of the City Council and
the State's supreme representative (Fig. 250-78). The rear
building consists of a facade and two wings, which,
together with the central building, enclose the open, planted
Court, to which there is entry by a carriage-drive through a
gate in each wing (Fig. 171-78. 281). As the ground on
which the building stands slopes downward from the front
to the back, the story in the rear building, corresponding to
the basement of the front building, becomes the ground
floor, and is designed for offices etc. The rear building is
the business side proper, and here are found most of the
municipal offices of the mayor of the third division and his
councillors, controlling the relief of the poor, also the
mayor of the fourth division, the „technical mayor" and his
councillors (Fig. 130-60). The ceilings of all the offices are
of masonry, smooth, and barrel-vaulted, whilst the floors
are either laid with boards or with concrete; all are linoleum
covered.
In the basement, ground-floor and first-floor of the
Central building are the rooms where are preserved the
municipal archives and a museum (Fig. 243-44). On the
second floor, on a level with the front building's ceremonial
apartments, is the City Council's chamber, where the
Council and the Magistracy assemble for the public
transaction of municipal business. With careful
consideration this chamber, is situated in the very heart of
the building, above the archives and the museum hall: the
living present above the dead past (Fig. 210-21). The
windows look out on the Council hall, and on the open
court with the business part of the building.
In the lowest cellar is installed the heating system. From
the boiler-house the steam is conducted through a wroughtiron
main, embedded in a concrete tunnel, to the cellar
under the middle of the rear building (Fig. 125). The
heating of almost all the apartments is effected by means of
heated air. During the winter, fresh air is admitted to the
rear building through two air-shafts situated at the corners
of the open court; during the summer, air can like-wise be
admitted through four other shafts in the court and two in
the street at the back of the City Hall. Fresh air for the front
building and the central building is admitted through a shaft
in the open court, by the side of the central building.
The facades of the City Hall are built of red handmade
brick, as well as the sides looking upon the open court,
limestone from Stævns being employed for the flat surfaces,
and carved granite from Bornholm for the plinths, cornices,
corbels etc. The roofing is slate, copper, and glass; copper is
also used for the gutters, the spires on the great tower, and
the five smaller towers, and for various chased
ornamentations. The height of the front building from the
street-level to the cornice is 23,23 m., to the castellated wall
35,46 m. to 36,72 m., to the corner spires 48,02 m. The
height of the rear building from the street-level to the
cornice is 17,58 m., to the castellated wall 28,72 m. and the
two corner spires 38,20 m. The castellated wall which runs
round the whole building is a striking and effective feature
of the sky-line, and its raison d'être is at once practical and
æsthetical [i. e. esthetical]. In the original scheme it was left
to the discretion of the architect, whether the edifice should
consist of one solid block, or several interdependent buildings.
The castellation that crowns the whole edifice keeps
the component parts together, so that there is presented to
the eye a solid whole. In the merlons are found the
ventilators, through which the vitiated air is expelled; the