Eber’s water towers 2021

The leading trade journal in Sweden, VA-tidskriften Cirkulation has since 1998 an article series under the heading Ebers vattentorn (Eber’s water towers), where Eber Ohlsson with text and photo presents interesting water towers in the world (except Scania and Sweden). Below is a free translation to English of these texts.


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 1/2021

A free translation to English:

There is water towers, which you for unusualness reasons can look down on. One such is the old water tower in Chicago in the USA. The houses around this are not just high-rise buildings, they are what we call skyscrapers. The 47-meter high tower of 1869 built in limestone is designed in the Gothic style by William W. Boyington.

It is the second oldest water tower in the USA. The Chicago Tower, which is a standpipe, was one of the few buildings that survived the Great Fire in 1871. The tower, in 1969, became the first object of the American Water Landmark designation, and since 1975 has also been an American Historic Place. A tower to look up to.

Published 2021-02-17


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 2/2021

A free translation to English:

In marketing a product or service, it is important to create positive values and good recognition. In that respect, the brand “The laughing cow” has succeeded. It was the founder Leon Bel, who himself designed the first version in the early 1900s.

The version that is best known today, however, is the illustrator Benjamin Rabier’s version from 1924 with the red cow and the round cheeses as earrings. When you pass the relatively anonymous factory in Lons-le-Saunier in the French Jura mountains near Switzerland and see the brand on the factory’s standard water tower, then you understand what is manufactured here.

Published 2021-03-24


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 2/2021

A free translation to English:

When the Second World War was over, the border between Germany and Poland came to be the Oder and Neiße rivers. It also meant that cities that crossed the river came after the war to end up in different countries. One such city is Görlitz, where the eastern district is now located in Poland and is called Zgorzelec.

Even if a border is moved, those who live there must have water and perhaps a water tower. In Zgorzelec, therefore, a water tower was built in 1969 consisting of three concrete cylinders with a diameter of 4.2 meters and 28.5 meters high, standing in triangle, each containing 260 m³, connected by glass walls and a staircase in the middle.

Published 2021-05-05


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 4/2021

A free translation to English:

The water tower in Gräfrath, in the famous knife manufacturing town of Solingen in the German Ruhr, shows how to transform an old water tower to a tower with high-tech edge. It was built in 1904 as a classic Intze-water and was then in operation until 1983. Instead of demolition became the tower a historic building, but unused for 10 years.

Now, the tower has become a showcase for two light technology firms, but also a tower where regenerative energy is shown, and since 2009 geothermal energy. Under the glass dome are also cultural events organized on a little higher level. A sharpened towers, Lichtturm Solingen.

Published 2021-06-09


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 5/2021

A free translation to English:

A can that contains only water may not be the most easily sold item, if it is not many times larger and is a neatly advertising painted water tower. In Sunnyvale, California, USA, there is a 46 m high water tower, which holds 570 m³ and is shaped and painted like a can of fruit cocktail from Libby’s.

The factory in Sunnyvale started in 1907 and in 1922 became the world’s largest cannery, where the first wooden water tower in 1965 was replaced by the current tower. The factory is now demolished, but the tower is still standing, now surrounded by high-tech companies, as it stands in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Published 2021-08-25


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 6/2021

A free translation to English:

A water tower is assumed to supply drinking water to the subscribers, but there are exceptions to this rule, although it is very unusual. In the Italian city of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea is in the harbor an Art Nouveau building from 1913, which was formerly a fish market. The building’s tower, which gives the impression of being a bell tower, however, is a water tower.

The reservoir contained salt water, which was delivered to the market fishmongers, so they could keep their merchandise fresh. Now is the fish market gone and the building is partly an aquarium since 1933 and also an exhibition hall.

Published 2021-09-22


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 7/2021

Brick expressionism is an architectural style that was common in the 1920s and 1930s in northern Germany and 1926-27 a water tower of this style was built in Wulsdorf in Bremerhaven. A water tower that also has housing, something the Germans call Wohnwasserturm.

The 34 meter high tower consists of a reinforced concrete skeleton, filled with brick walls. At the top there are two concrete cisterns totaling 1,500 m3, and there under 24 housing units. The building has pilasters and marked corner pilasters and triangular stairwells protruding from the façade. The water tower is a building memory since 1978 and was taken out of service in 1996.

Published 2021-10-20


Eber’s water towers in Cirkulation 8/2021

When architects are to draw a building, it is not unusual for them to be inspired by older buildings. Like that it was when Hvidovre water tower was to be built. Hvidovre is a southwestern suburb of Copenhagen, which got municipal waterwork and water tower in the 1930s.

The architect Carl Jørgensen had when he designed the 36 meter high water tower with a reservoir of 300m3 and which was completed in 1937, the Rundetårn in Copenhagen as a model. Like King Christian 4’s famous and equally high observatory tower from 1642 in inner Copenhagen, it has pilasters and viewing platform, but in modern functional style.

Published 2021-12-08


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