– Guess if I was there! Just a few days after opening. I was really a little hook at the time … 68-year-old Christian Ringnes reminisces. It has been many years and many millions of kroner since he first picked up the lift and got to see the view from Tryvannstårnet. It is 529 meters above sea level, at the top of Oslo. On clear days you can see all the way to Gaustatoppen. Or Sweden. – I could almost see our cabin on Norefjell. It was a great experience for a young little man. This is the experience I hope you can get back, says the investor. All in 2019, he launched the idea of buying the tower. And maybe the dream can now come true. For the Urban Environment Agency recommends selling it. Christian Ringnes (right) with the architect Ajas Mellbye, from when Ringnes launched the idea to buy Tryvannstårnet in 2019. Photo: Olav Juven / news Tryvannstårnet is a cultural monument, so there are restrictions on what can be done there. But there are definitely opportunities, says city antiquarian Janne Wilberg. – We would think it is very nice, if you manage to give it new use. Whether it is a private person or others who want to invest in this, we are part of the team, she says. New life in old buildings Oslo Municipality is one of the country’s largest landowners, with almost 10,000 properties in its portfolio. Everything from roads and forests to kindergartens, schools, homes and bathing places. Around 100 of the buildings they own are completely empty. The municipality has now mapped them, and the agencies have recommended what should be done with them. They recommend this: To sell several buildings, including country cabins, some homes and Tryvannstårnet. Rehabilitate many buildings that have been empty for a long time, and give them new life. Like Café Utsikten on Ekeberg. Several of the principals’ homes in the schools should also be rehabilitated and used again, the municipality believes. Demolish buildings that are in poor condition. The goal is to be able to create new life in buildings that have been empty for years – and to sell away what the municipality does not need. Hukodden beach restaurant is now closed and locked behind a rusty fence. The municipality recommends refurbishing it and renting it out again. Photo: Artur de Camo / news Café The view at Ekeberg has been empty since the Norwegian Food Safety Authority closed it in 2009, partly due to a lack of doors. It should be rehabilitated and rented out, is the recommendation from the Urban Environment Agency. Photo: Lise Merete Olaussen / news Gamle Vækerø fire and police station in stately dragon style. But now the house is falling into disrepair. Photo: Artur da Camo / news Restaurant and café The sales list includes several country cabins – and Tryvannstårnet, with the buildings around. And if Ringnes keeps his word, there can be both a café and a restaurant there. – I envision a restaurant, café and lookout point for the city of Oslo. Just like it actually was, when it opened 60 years ago. The first lookout tower came all in 1867. It was made of wood, and far lower than today. Today’s tower saw the light of day in 1962, then as both a radio and lookout tower. Photo: Photo from the book “Greetings from Oslomarka” In 2005, the tower was closed to visitors, and in 2017 it was over for good. Then the FM network was switched off, and Tryvannstårnet remained as a monument to the past. The billionaire has already invested in several large projects in Oslo, such as the Ekeberg restaurant, Ekebergparken and Folketeaterpassasjen. Now he hopes Tryvannstårnet can soon be added to the list. – With a new costume, and exciting content in the tower, I think this can be a fantastic enrichment for Oslo, says Ringnes. The agencies have made their recommendations, but no final decisions have been made yet. A summer paradise From Tryvann you can look down to the islands in the Oslo Fjord. On one of them lies a forgotten summer paradise. Eli Grimsby, CEO of Oslobygg, thinks Malmøykalven is a fairytale island, which reminds her of growing up in Sørlandet. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news – That we have such a place so close to Norway’s capital is an incredible value, says Eli Grimsby, and looks out over the water. She is the director of Oslobygg. Out on the island Malmøykalven they own 13 houses. Nine of them are used by happy young people at summer camps. The rest is empty. Among other things, the stately house which is the first thing you see when you get off the ferry. Richly decorated, and with huge windows in the living room, where you could once sit and look out to sea. Now the garden has grown again. The walls need paint. And the house needs people. A “child of pain”, says city antiquarian Janne Wilberg, that the beautiful villa has stood and fallen into disrepair. The municipality has owned the beautiful main building on Malmøykalven for over 100 years. No one knows how long it has been empty. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news Neither she nor Oslobygg knows how long. At least since 2009, when manager Mehari Melake started working But now something happens. Oslobygg has quietly started refurbishing. New floor and ceiling have been laid. The house is secure. The hope is that it can be filled with life again next summer. – We can not promise it, but we must have some ambitions, Grimsby laughs. Byantikvar Wilberg is happy. For Malmøykalven’s history should not be forgotten, she believes. Tuberculosis history The municipality bought the island in 1915. And shortly after, the island was used as a sanatorium for children with tuberculosis. There are few traces left after the sanatorium days. But one of them is the old nursing room, right out to sea. It is as if the nurses have just left the nursing home at the far end of the island. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news A toast marked with «Ullevål hospital» is one of the few reminders of the island’s past as a tuberculosis sanatorium. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news Almost all the furniture is left. And it takes little before the house can be used, according to Eli Grimsby and Kjetil Skjønhaug in Oslobygg. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news On a islet facing the sea, a white gazebo is idyllically located. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news Lysthuset is a nice place to have your morning coffee, Eli thinks. For her, the Malmö calf evokes memories of growing up in Sørlandet. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news The kitchen equipment is a bit old, and the mattresses have seen better days. But it does not take much for the house to be used. Billion costs Then it is worse with some of the other buildings owned by the municipality that have been empty for a long time. Some of them will cost a lot to rehabilitate to a usable standard. Like the Locomotive Workshop in the Medieval Park, with a price tag of around 300 million. Byantikvar Janne Wilberg is happy that old buildings can be given new life. Although rehabilitation costs. Photo: Elin Martinsen But it’s worth it, says Janne Wilberg. – It’s a great building. It is large and can be used for a lot, there are many who are interested. It costs money, yes, but it’s life made, she says. A part simply has to be demolished. For example, some old kindergartens and children’s parks. The hope is to either build new, or that the green areas where the buildings stand can be used. Nor is it free. Only the demolition and rehabilitation of new buildings will cost billions. And that is before you look at the price of renovating the buildings that are actually used for something. As Kirkeristen, in Oslo’s parade street Karl Johan. Renovating it will probably cost 430 million, the Ministry of Culture estimates. Such major rehabilitations must be adopted by politicians, and can not just be initiated. Byantikvaren believes that Kirkeristen in central Oslo is one of the buildings that needs to be rehabilitated. But the price tag can be high. Photo: Bård Nafstad / news But Wilberg reminds that not everything can be measured in money: – Most people have become increasingly aware of how important it is to take care of history. Many of the municipal buildings are our common heritage, she says. – It is about taking care of the values we own together.
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Will sell Tryvannstårnet and refurbish buildings for billions of kroner – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
