Viipurin Panttilaitos Oy Building, 1931 Uno Werner Ullberg (15 February 1879 in Viipuri – 12 January 1944 in Helsinki) was a famous Finnish architect.

Ullberg graduated in 1901 from the architectural faculty at the Helsinki Polytechnic Institute (Polytekniska institutet in Swedish), now Aalto University.

After returning in 1906 to his native city, he opened an architectural bureau together with Axel Gyldén, who had studied with him in Helsinki.

The main elevation pediments, openings, window frames, portals, and the granite facades are quite typical of National Romanticism, which at that time was also the prevailing architectural style in Finland for key public buildings, most notably in the works of architects Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen (e.g. Finnish Pavilion at Exposition Universelle (1900), Paris, and National Museum of Finland, Helsinki [1902–1904].)

The inside of the house survived harmful transformations during the Soviet period so the interior decorations were greatly damaged.

The most interesting examples from this period include the reconstruction of the Union Bank (originally built in 1900), the Karjala offices (1929), the store and residence of V. Dippel (1921) and the restoration of the famous medieval Round Tower in the middle of the old city centre.

The most important period in Ullberg's architect career is connected with the "White Era" of Functionalist architecture.

Contrasting with its fortress surroundings, the white-stuccoed building commands the view over the South Harbour and the approach from the sea.

The wider part of the courtyard faces south-west, towards the harbour, and there is an imposing twin-row of Classical columns with a rectangular cross-section supporting an equally stylistic curving architrave, doubling as a corridor that connects the two buildings.

The approach to the museum from the city is through a series of flights of steps leading to an opening, set at an angle, between the windowless north walls of the wings.

The bold fenestration is enabled by the use of a solid reinforced concrete girderless framework with "mushroom form" columns that free the brick facade of its load-bearing function.