Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station

They were designed by Otto Wagner, adviser to the Transport Commission in Vienna,[1] and Joseph Maria Olbrich and are, unlike the other Stadtbahn stations, made of a steel framework with marble slabs mounted on the exterior.

[2] Architectural critic and poet Friedrich Achleitner commented on the Stadtbahn stations as follows "...In these two station buildings Wagner reached a highpoint of his dialectic (in his planning of the Stadtbahn) between function and poetry, construction and decoration, whereby a severe rationalism engages in competition with an almost Secessionist kind of decoration."

When the Stadtbahn line was converted to U-Bahn in 1981, the original station was scheduled to be demolished.

Both buildings were disassembled, renovated, and then reassembled two metres (6 ft 7 in) higher than their original location after completion of U-Bahn construction.

One of the buildings is now used as an exhibition space by the Vienna Museum, with an U-Bahn entrance in its rear; the other is used as a café.