Lauttasaari water tower

[7]: 38  From the 1950s, Lauttasaari started becoming a proper district, and the number of apartment buildings increased rapidly.

[5]: 26  At the time, the usual type of water tower was a cylindrical container supported by pillars.

An additional consideration was that a sleeker conical water tower would fit the Lauttasaari environment better.

[3]: 3 The waterworks suggest Myllykallio as the location for the new water tower to the construction bureau in April 1956, as it is the highest spot in Lauttasaari.

After negotiations with the zoning department it was found that as the Lauttasaari church was being built at the end of Tallbergin puistotie, the water tower would have to be placed at least 70 metres north of the Myllykallio cliffs for zoning reasons, so it would have been constructed about seven metres lower than planned.

The proposal said that the effect the Lauttasaari church had on the zoning plan was that Kotkavuori was an equal option for the location as Myllykallio, as both had the same height of 27 metres from sea level in the spots reserved for the water tower.

The tunnel plan was abandoned, as it would have required excavation at a depth of 50 metres, which would have made it over two kilometres long and very expensive to carry out.

[3]: 4 The City Council of Helsinki approved the main design drawings for the Lauttasaari water tower in March 1958.

[7]: 41  The bidding contest for the construction of the water tower was originally won by Oy Concrete Ab with a price of 59.65 million markka and the contest for tensing the water container by A-Betoni Oy with 6.93 million markka.

[3]: 5 During planning the construction, an alternative where the water container would be built on the ground and later lifted on top of the tower on a shaft was also considered.

[2]: 68  After this, reinforcing elements were placed on the outer surface of the tower and construction was finally complete in February 1959.

New special water pipes brought from Germany were later lowered onto the seabed, floated onto their place with pontoons.

The current main water pipe goes from Salmisaari to Lauttasaari via a multi-purpose tunnel completed in 2000.

[3]: 7 The tunnel was built at Melojantie 2 up to the intersection between Koillisväylä and Klaarantie, at which it passes Kotkavuori and ends at Taivaanvuohentie.

A vertical underground shaft from the tunnel has been built at the same spot, with stairs leading up to the water tower.

The purpose of the beams and ring was to support the water container and to ensure that the structure did not suffer damage due to changes in outdoor temperature or the shape of the concrete shell.

[3]: 8 The outer shell and support ring of the tower were pre-tensed concrete to prevent tensions and subsequent damage in the structure.

The outer walls and the support ring were cast without interruption, to prevent folds from appearing between the structures and to ensure water-tightness.

[9]: 39 The thermal insulation was done by adding protective elements representing mushroom gills to the outer walls, with three-centimetre thick cork disks inside them.

[6] In May 1982 a grid was built on top of the tower, on which two large link antennas were positioned for the use of the defence forces and the frontier guard.

According to a report made by Helsingin Energia, replacing the lights would have cost tens of thousands of euros.

[3]: 11  The bureau thought that the concrete platform surrounded by a railing on top of the tower could be used as a temporary viewpoint.

When the first Helsinki Day was celebrated on 12 June 1959, the Lauttasaari water tower was open to the public and was a huge success.

The icon for the column was a humorous image of a man looking at the sky from top of a disproportionally tall water tower.

"), which said the thawing ground and vibrations from passing traffic had caused the tower to list precariously and would fall down without emergency action.

The city of Helsinki was ready to give up the building it had no use for any more, and several entities were interested in the water tower, with plans to convert it into a café, a testing area for rescue equipment, a memorial, or residential apartments.

There were no spaces in the water tower that could be converted into apartments, as the conversion work would have been expensive and would probably have required building a new floor.

The interior of the tower was in pretty good shape except for the original electricity works, but the exterior was badly in need of repair.

[3]: 14 Further challenges to finding new use for the tower came from its location on the Kotkavuori hill, in the middle of a park on the end of narrow streets lined with apartments.