Entrance into the Main Courtyard
Villa Hvitträsk near Luoma, Finland

Finnish architects Eliel Saarinen, Herman Gesellius, and Armas Lindgren created this artistic, lakeside retreat for themselves between 1901 and 1904.  The three men had established their partnership a few years earlier shortly before their graduation from the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki.  They built Hvitträsk to consolidate their practice and to escape the congestion and noise of city life.  The complex included a shared studio, homes for each of their families, and several service buildings.  The architects arranged their studio and homes around a central garden courtyard.  The romantic looking stone and plaster tower visible to the right of this picture was part of the original Gesellius home, which now houses a cafe and an elegant restaurant.  Photograph taken in 1982 by Howard J. Partridge.

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