Domus Litonii

The World Trade Center Helsinki is a world trade center for financial companies and bureaus, located in central Helsinki, Finland. The building is located on Aleksanterinkatu very close to the main building of the University of Helsinki and to the Stockmann department store. On the first floor, the building houses a branch office of the Nordea bank, an Italian restaurant, and several bars. The architect Pauli E. Blomstedt was just 26 when he won the competition for the design of the building for the Liittopankki (Union Bank) in the Nordic Classicism style. It was completed in 1929.

Rautatalo (Swedish: Järnhuset) is an office building in central Helsinki, Finland, completed in 1955, and notable for having been designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.The building is based on Aalto's winning entry, Casa, to a 1951 design contest. It was commissioned for the Finnish Hardware Association, after which it is named: Rautatalo literally translates as 'Iron House' or 'Iron Building'; hardware stores in Finnish being called rautakauppa ('iron shop', compare with 'ironmongers').The exterior character of the building is dark and austere, clad with copper plate on its main façade and brown brick on the side elevation. It was designed to match the height and proportions of the earlier building, created in classical style by Eliel Saarinen, which it abuts on one side (seen in the photo on the right).In contrast to the exterior, the interior is light and airy, making extensive use of white Carrara marble and travertine. At the heart of the interior space is an enclosed atrium, naturally-lit through 40 skylights, known as Marmoripiha ('Marble Courtyard'), with its design inspired by Mediterranean architecture.The lower floors house retail premises, including a café in the atrium space, with offices located on the upper floors.The building's exterior and much of its interior features have protected status.

Keskuskatu (Finnish, Swedish: Centralgatan), meaning "central street", is a two block long walking street in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. Along the street are located, counting from the southern end on Pohjoisesplanadi street, the Stockmann department store, the Rautatalo building, Domus Litonii, WTC Helsinki and the shopping centre City-Center, nicknamed "Makkaratalo" ("sausage house"). Keskuskatu ends at Kaivokatu opposite to the Helsinki Central railway station. Halfway through the street it is crossed by Aleksanterinkatu.

Kirjatalo (Swedish: Bokhuset; lit. 'Book House') is a commercial building located on the corner of Pohjoisesplanadi and Keskuskatu in central Helsinki, Finland. It is notable for having been designed by Alvar Aalto. Possibly its best-known resident is the flagship store of the Academic Bookstore chain.

Stockmann Helsinki Centre is a culturally significant business building and department store located in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. It is one of many department stores owned by the Stockmann corporation. It is the largest department store in the Nordic countries in terms of area and total sales. The store is known for carrying all the internationally recognised luxury brands, and Stockmann's enjoys a reputation as the primary high-end department store in Finland. Stockmann Delicatessen, the food and beverage department located at the basement level, is renowned for the quality and choice of its foodstuffs. The Stockmann logo represents a set of escalators, which are commonly, but wrongly believed represent the first escalators in Finland. The first escalators in Finland were installed in the Forum department store, Turku (1926). In 2017, Stockmann Helsinki Centre was the fifth largest department store in Europe with area of 50,500 square meters. Especially the clock at the main entrance, colloquially "Stockan kello" ("Stocka's clock"), has become a symbol of Helsinkian city culture as a popular meeting place. Valter Thomé and his brother won the architecture competition for the department store in 1916. The Thomé brothers were killed in the Finnish Civil War. The building was built in 1930, and the task was then given to Sigurd Frosterus who had been on the second place in the original competition. The department store was designed in nordic Art Deco style. It is part of the Gazelle block in the district of Kluuvi. The new expansion of the building is based on Sigurd Frosterus's plans.

Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has the biggest collections of classical art in Finland. Before 1991 the Ateneum building also housed the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and University of Art and Design Helsinki.

The Grey Dance is a painting by Väinö Kunnas, from 1928.

The Swedish Theatre (Swedish: Svenska Teatern) is a Swedish-language theatre in Helsinki, Finland, and is located at the Erottaja (Swedish: Skillnaden) square, at the end of Esplanadi (Swedish: Esplanaden). It was the first national stage of Finland.

Hercules is a gay bar and nightclub in Helsinki, Finland. Operating since 2000, it is the third establishment opened by Moek Trading Oy, a partnership between restaurateurs Erkki Koski and Mika Olkkonen. Hercules caters primarily to gay men over 30, and its live entertainment features drag queens and strippers. The bar was located in Helsinki's Kamppi neighborhood until the end of 2015, when a hotel took over its space. It subsequently reopened at an address in Etu-Töölö, where it endured a number of events that caused financial strain. That location closed in December 2020, when the building was sold to new owners. The club then reopened across the street from Helsinki's central railway station in October 2021. Critics generally describe Hercules as popular, edgy and welcoming.

Erottaja (Swedish: Skillnaden), meaning "the separator", is a public square near the centre of Helsinki, Finland. Erottaja square has been selected as the official geographic "zero point" of Helsinki. Distances to all other cities in Finland are measured starting from here. In practice, the square functions as the meeting point of central Helsinki's two famous streets, Esplanadi and Mannerheimintie. The square is the western endpoint of Esplanadi, with the eastern endpoint being at the market square. Mannerheimintie, the longest and most famous street in Helsinki, begins at Erottaja and continues northwest, past the districts of Töölö and Ruskeasuo, until finally merging with a highway leading outside the city. The starting points of both Finnish national roads, the Tampere Highway (E12) and the Lahti Highway (E75), are located approximately in Erottaja. There is also a minor bus station at Erottaja. Very few lines start or end there, most of them start or end at the Kamppi Center or at Rautatientori. The Swedish Theatre (Swedish: Svenska teatern, Finnish: Ruotsalainen teatteri) is located at Erottaja, at the western edge of the Esplanadi park. A sculpture named Usko toivo rakkaus (Swedish: Tro hopp kärlek), meaning "Faith hope love", by Eva Lange, was erected in front of it in September 2019.Erottaja is also famous for being the most expensive lot in the original Finnish edition of Monopoly, even more expensive than Mannerheimintie (the second most expensive lot). This has earned the square fame even outside Helsinki.

The Eino Leino is a statue of Eino Leino (1878–1926) sculpted by Lauri Leppänen in the Esplanadi Park in Helsinki, Finland. It is located in the northeast corner of Teatteriesplanadi, close to the intersection of the Pohjoisesplanadi and Mikonkatu streets. The statue was unveiled on September 26, 1953, the 63rd anniversary of Leino's publication of his first poem in Hämeen Sanomat. The Eino Leino Society, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the publishing company Otava had declared a memorial competition in 1948, which was decided in 1951 in the second round in favor of Leppänen. Leppänen had personally known Leino while he was alive. Leppänen hoped to place the statue in Taka-Töölö on the corner of the Eino Leinon katu and Topeliuksenkatu streets, but it was placed on the Esplanade. Arvo Turtiainen wrote a poem about the statues in the Esplanadi Park, in which he lamented that Leino was placed halfway between the two restaurants and still spoke to Taru ja Totuus, the girls statue owned for Zachris Topelius.The statue with its pedestal is 4.2 metres (14 ft) high. Engraved on the pedestal of the statue is a verse from Leino's poem Väinämöinen's Song: "One is a song above the others: a harsh song of the spirit of the human ideology". An interesting detail in the statue is its hand, into which a five-mark coin was inserted when it was cast. This is related to the story that Leino stated in his life that he "is not poor as long as he has a mark on his hand".

The City-Center was a plan to raze and rebuild the block between the central Helsinki streets of Kaivokatu, Keskuskatu and Aleksanterinkatu, creating a unified, modern appearance for the area. The plan was originally drafted between 1958 and 1960 by Viljo Revell; Heikki Castrén continued work on the plan after Revell's death in 1964. The fulfillment of the plan would have required the demolition of several old buildings that are today considered to be a vital part of Helsinki's heritage. The only part of the plan that was implemented as planned is the 1967 office and shopping centre building right across the street from the Helsinki Central railway station, popularly known as Makkaratalo, Finnish for "sausage house": the elevated parking lot occupying the third floor is encircled by a decorative railing which is said to resemble a sausage. The first occurrence of the name was in a caricature drawn by the Finnish cartoonist Kari Suomalainen in Helsingin Sanomat. In the cartoon, a man is buying food from a snack bar near the Makkaratalo. He points at the railing, and the snack bar vendor replies, "Well, I'm just a small-time businessman."Today, the term "City-Center" refers to the entire shopping complex consisting of the Makkaratalo, various older properties, and the pathways connecting them to the adjacent streets. However, the term is rarely used and is unfamiliar even to most natives of Helsinki.The Finnish real estate company Sponda bought the City-Center in 2000 and has extensively renovated it. The building is currently protected by Finland's National Board of Antiquities as part of the city's heritage. In 2005 a decision was made to place the building under protection, allowing removal of the car-ramps but not the "sausage".The Helsingin kaupunginmuseo (Helsinki city Museum Bureau) also concluded in a written statement that The Makkaratalo reflects the Finnish ideology of planning in the 60's, e.g., the view that the city of Helsinki should prepare for a wider use of cars as part of becoming a modern metropolis. It is also a prime example of Viljo Revell's work. In the view of the Helsinkian, the Makkaratalo presents the perspective of everyday life. It has become a vital part of the Helsinki cityscape and a part of the collective memory of Helsinkians. However, this view can not be considered to be widespread in Helsinki. The Makkaratalo is commonly considered an eyesore. There have been several public statements about its ugliness, considering its very central place. For instance, the former leader of the National Board of Antiquities has stated that he considers the building an ugly error in judgement in city-planning, and would not oppose its demolition. The Makkaratalo also topped a 2004 poll by Helsingin Sanomat as the ugliest building in Helsinki. It was also featured in a 2005 series in Helsingin Sanomat about the oddest construction plans in the rapid growth of the 1960s.