About this site
School plot 7-5-3 is centrally located in Vaasa city's original grid-plan area, in the block bounded by Rauhankatu, Raastuvankatu and Kasarminkatu. Together with plot 7-5-4 bordering Kauppapuistikko it forms a coherent block for educational use (YO), which was already reserved for educational use in C.A. Setterberg's first detail plan for Vaasa from 1855. The fire-street structure characteristic of the city centre area is interrupted in the original detail plan at the school properties and replaced by a park area between the school buildings. The block structure has been preserved in its original form both in the Vaasa city centre renovation plan confirmed in 1973, prepared in accordance with architect Krökström's general plan, and in the current detail plan confirmed on 17.6.1981. On the property at Raastuvankatu, in addition to Vaasa University's/the former Finnish primary school's main building, there is a two-storey residential building with rendered facades completed in 1892, which was acquired in the 1960s as teaching premises for the commercial school, and a four-storey addition with exposed concrete surface designed by architectural firm Annikki Nurminen in 1975 for Vaasa School of Economics. Before the 1866 Elementary School Decree, which obliged cities to establish and maintain primary schools, a two-storey school building, also called the old stone schoolhouse, designed by architect C.A. Setterberg in 1861, was erected on the block's side facing Kauppapuistikko. At the same time an apparently single-storey timber building, apparently originating from Old Vaasa, was relocated to the other end of the school plot at Raastuvankatu for school use. Due to the growing number of pupils and poor conditions in the timber school, the timber building was moved to Väyrinkaupunki and replaced by a brick-framed building with block-rendered Neo-Renaissance surfaces, designed by architects Backmansson and Thesleff in 1890. The building initially housed both Swedish- and Finnish-language primary schools and in the late 1910s briefly served as a barracks for Russian naval soldiers. After Finland's independence, primary school activities continued on the premises until 1940, when the spaces were transferred to Vaasa Commercial School. During the change of purpose, internal alterations were made to the building based on city architect Serenius's plans of 1944, and a four-storey extension designed by him was completed on the courtyard side of the main building in 1953. In autumn 1968 the building passed mainly to the newly established Vaasa School of Economics. To meet the higher education institution's new space requirements, the property was expanded by incorporating the end plots at Raastuvankatu 29 and 33 and a 1976 addition designed by architect Annikki Nurmi's architectural firm was realised on the side facing Kasarminkatu. Despite this extension, the institution's premises became insufficient and, before its move to Palosaari campus in 1994, it operated from twelve different locations around Vaasa. Following university use, a university of applied sciences operated in the building until 2016, after which it served as Vaasa-opisto/"Alma-opisto" and as temporary premises for Merenkurkun koulu. During this period minor internal repairs and alterations have been carried out in the main building's spaces, as well as a repair/restoration of the facades.
Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish
- Municipality
- Vaasa