Our history
Our buildings
Nobis Hotel is designed in a style of timeless contemporary elegance by renowned architect and design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune. The new design interacts and contrasts effectfully with the buildings’ magnificent, culturally protected late 19th century original interiors. Both of our buildings are superior examples of Stockholm’s unique, lavishly decorated bourgeoisie stone architecture, and both brim with Stockholmian history. Read more about it below!
Nobis Hotel is located in two magnificent late 19th-century buildings, both representing the finest of Stockholm’s unique bourgeois stone city that emerged in the latter half of the 1800s, at the outset of Sweden’s industrial revolution.
The southern structure was built in 1884-86, designed by architect Oskar Ericsson, originally as a private residence for the industrial magnate Walter Hirsch. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the building’s ground floor housed several legendary restaurants. It was later turned into a bank palace. In 1973, the building was dramatically thrust in the limelight of world news, when a bank robber held four people hostage in a drama that stretched out for six days, ”The Norrmalmstorg Drama”. It is from these dramatic events that the expression ”The Stockholm Syndrome” originates, relating to the complex relationship that can develop between a hostage taker and his hostages. In recent years, this building has accommodated one of Sweden’s leading legal firms. The Acne fashion label’s flagship store is located on the ground floor level.
The northern structure was erected in 1890-93, designed by architect Johan Laurentz, who also designed several famous buildings along the Strandvägen seafront esplanade and elsewhere in Stockholm. Originally, the premises housed apartments for affluent Stockholmers, including one apartment with a suite of 22 rooms, plus servants’ quarters. This building, too, was later turned into a banking palace, then into the headquarters of one of Sweden’s leading legal firms. The Marimekko fashion and design label’s flagship store is located on the ground floor level.
Sharp contemporary interior design in superior quality classic bourgeois stone architecture
Both edifices in which our hotel is built are fine examples of the supreme quality, richly decorated architecture that distinguished Stockholm’s emerging stone city in the late 19th century. The buildings have been revamped and modified several times over the years. In 1971, the two buildings were joined through the third floor. Large parts of the original interiors remain intact and are protected for their esthetic and cultural values by the Swedish National Heritage Board. When constructing our hotel, we have carefully restored these interiors to their original splendor, with a beautiful patina. The lavish, late 19th-century charm of the buildings, contrasting with the sharp, contemporary new interiors designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune, shape the unique character of the interiors in Nobis Hotel.
