Ivar Justus Tengbom (April 7, 1878 – August 6, 1968) was aSwedisharchitect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedishneo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s.
Tengbom was born inVireda inJönköping County, studied at theChalmers School of Technology inGothenburg 1894-1898, at the architecture school of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Arts inStockholm 1898-1901 (being awarded the so-called Royal Medal) and abroad 1905-1906. He worked 1906-1912 withErnst Torulf in Stockholm and Gothenburg 1906-1912, and on his own from 1912 in Stockholm. He was appointed architect in the Office of the Chief Intendant in 1906 and professor of architecture in theRoyal Swedish College of Art in 1916. He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in 1917. In 1921 he was appointed Director General of the National Board of Public Building (Byggnadsstyrelsen).
The architect firm Tengbom & Torulf won second prize in the 1905 competition for theStockholm City Hall building (afterRagnar Östberg), and in 1906 again second prize for theEngelbrektskyrkan (Engelbrekt Church) in Stockholm (built according to the design ofLars Israel Wahlman). They were more successful in the competition for the City Court building (rådhus) inBorås in 1909, where they won first prize and were allowed to execute their design. Another public building designed by Tengbom in collaboration with Torulf was the new church inArvika, completed in 1911. The two also received the commission, in 1909, to build a hunting lodge forEric von Rosen in what is todayJaktstuguskogen Nature Reserve. TheTrelleborg Water Tower was built after drawings by Tengbom and completed in 1912.[1]
After Tengbom left the collaboration with Torulf, he made the design for the main office of theStockholms Enskilda Bank at the Kungsträdgården Park in Stockholm (1912–1915). Another Stockholm office for the bank, at Götgatan onSödermalm, was built according to Tengbom's design in 1916. Another bank office was the one designed for theBorås Enskilda Bank (1916). Other Tengbom buildings from the time period were that of the building for the daily newspaperSvenska Dagbladet at the street Karduansmakargatan in Stockholm, and theHögalidskyrkan (Högalid Church) in Stockholm (after winning first prize in a competition).
In the 1920s he made the design for the building of theStockholm School of Economics (1925) and theStockholm Concert Hall (1923–1926) atHötorget Square. The hall is the home of theRoyal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and is where theNobel Prize ceremony takes place. The hall has a light-blue exterior; its portico has tall, slender polygonal columns withcorinthian capitals. The concert hall is probably Tengbom's best-known building and, together withGunnar Asplund'sStockholm Public Library, the most widely recognized example of theneo-classical architecture of the Swedish 1920s, in English referred to asSwedish Grace.
In the last years of the 1920s, he designed theMatchstick Palace, the main office ofIvar Kreuger's corporationSvenska Tändsticksbolaget at Trädgårdsgatan in Stockholm. His later production includes the building for theSwedish Institute at Rome 1938-1940. He was awarded one of the inauguralPrince Eugen Medals in 1945 for architecture.[2]
His sonAnders Tengbom (1911–2009) was also, in his own right, a very famous architect. One of his greatest creations wasBonnierhuset, one of the tallest buildings in Stockholm. Anders Tengbom also oversaw the renovation of the Stockholm Concert Hall in the 1970s.[3] His daughter,Ann-Mari Tengbom, marriedOtto Christian Archibald von Bismarck.
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