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14 Consuming Media

CONFLICTING HISTORIES OF PLACE
Solna Centre’s basic structure stems from 1965 when the original shopping centre
was built. At one end the pedestrian main street opens toward Solna Square (Solna
torg) and the subway station. At the other end it is connected to the City Hall
(Stadshuset) with the municipal administration and services, including at the time of
our study, the city’s employment offices. Major renovations in 1989 including a glass
roof over the central shopping complex marked the transformation of Solna’s city
centre from a city street to an indoor shopping environment. The glass roof was
extended in 2001 to enclose the Hotel Street (Hotellgatan) that leads into Solna
Square and continues to the hotel entrance. In this most recent renovation, the shops
along Hotel Street received new glass fronts, and a broad majestic staircase was added
leading up and out to an adjacent park.
Solna’s local history has been another important ingredient in the construction of the
shopping centre. The architect’s vision when he redesigned the centre in 1989 included
many references to the history and culture of the region, and specifically the city of
Solna. Paintings on the walls refer to the adjacent soccer stadium, to the home team
that is sometimes a contender for the national league pennant, to Solna’s history of film
production and to Greta Garbo’s aura. Over the years these murals have become over-
shadowed by the trademarks and signs of the stores along the main passages. The major
sports store’s logo and Nike’s oversized banners of international sports icons Carl Lewis
and Tiger Woods tower over the pastel-coloured wall painting of an anonymous line of
soccer players. And Garbo’s familiar face is nearly hidden by an elevator shaft.
The main feature of Library Square (Bibliotekstorget) is the Hollywood Stairs
(Hollywoodtrappan), an additional reference to Solna’s old film studios, and linking
them to the Hollywood dream factory. The architect further mixed rituals of high
and popular culture by using the Hollywood Stairs to refer as well to the majestic
staircase in Stockholm’s City Hall, where Nobel laureates join the nation’s political,
economic and cultural elite for the annual banquet. At the top of the Hollywood
Stairs are several stores and cafés around a ‘Piazza’, according to the sign hanging
among the painted clouds. High on one wall a mural portrays a Solna landmark, the
idyllic late-nineteenth-century house that once belonged to a popular local artist and
is now the city’s art museum. New apartment buildings tower over the house, a visual
commentary on the urban renewal project that replaced the traditional buildings and
culture of the nearby neighbourhood. The mural, with its complex visual display and
associations, is the backdrop for business signs on the Piazza – clothing stores, a
telecommunications shop and the ‘Hollywood café’ featuring a ‘Sushi bar’ with a
neon image of a sumo wrestler.
Throughout the mall there are similar conflicting references to different pasts and
different cultures, many far removed from the city of Solna. The long corridor of
Postal Walk (Postgången) for example, was inspired by the Paris Arcades. The archi-
tect conceptualized this narrow passageway as a ‘street by night’ with hanging lamps
modelled after the gaslights that hung from the ceiling of the Panorama Arcade in