Åhléns City

The building was designed by the architectural bureau Backström & Reinius Arkitekter AB, was opened on 9 September 1964 and was awarded the Kasper Salin Prize in 1966.

[1] In the 1950s the board of Åhlén & Holm saw that the redevelopment of Norrmalm would move the centre of the city from Hötorget to Sergels torg.

The old building in the Gripen block was torn down in the early 1960s along with the Stockholm workers' institute and the Valhalla Mission.

[2]: 94  Backström & Reinius changed this after studying American commercial architecture to a windowless high street facade with a painted wall with alternating red and white stripes.

The outer surface of the precast concrete elements consists of brick glassed in red and white.