The Grimeton World Heritage Foundation has decided to rebuild and expand the visitor center at the soon-to-be 100-year-old Grimeton Radio Station. Construction will start immediately in order to open a more flexible and accessible World Heritage Centre in the summer of 2025. During the construction period, which largely falls during the anniversary year, the World Heritage Site will not be closed but can be visited by self-check-in. At the same time, a full program of anniversary activities is being planned and will be announced soon. Once the construction project is completed, it is hoped that the site will be able to offer both residents and visitors to the region a wider range of activities and expanded services.
The redevelopment and extension is part of a long-term effort to develop the site and make it more accessible. Construction of the existing visitor center began in 2004 after Grimeton Radio Station was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the need for services and facilities increased. Compared to the current visitor center, the building will now double in size. The World Heritage Centre will be officially inaugurated on the occasion of the Jubilee Year on July 2, 2025, exactly 100 years after King Gustav V inaugurated this high-tech venture for Sweden, which facilitated business and people-to-people contacts with the United States.
In 2019, ties were forgedto jointly develop Grimeton World Heritage Site as a sustainable visitor destination. The initiative is long-awaited, but also carefully thought out and balanced. Partly because the project’s budget of about SEK 20 million is in the smallest team, but above all because the organization wants to make as small a climate footprint as possible during construction. The architectural firm Krook & Tjäder has been hired for project planning. In addition to bringing the new parts together with the old parts of the building in a good way, they have been tasked with thinking about the reuse of materials and how smart surfaces can be created for greater flexibility in terms of use. Börjesson Bygg in Tvååker has been hired for the construction, which in turn is happy to hire subcontractors from the village. “It feels very good that we have followed our development plan since 2018 when it was adopted. At a ceremony in 2019, the most important stakeholders tied a symbolic ribbon to jointly develop the site. We are now taking the next step towards our vision of becoming ‘a World Heritage Site with global reach’. The fact that we also get to do this together with a local entrepreneur who is really passionate about the project makes it extra fun,” says Camilla Lugnet, CEO of Grimeton World Heritage Site.
The 2024 World Heritage Visitor Center will be extended and rebuilt for the anniversary celebrations. The space will double in size to accommodate new exhibitions, more flexible premises and better facilities. possibility of food service.
The place of the world
The extension will also complete the World Heritage exhibition. In the midst of the current pandemic in 2020, the first part of the exhibition was opened in the Garage, focusing on communication over 100 years and beyond, and the following year it was supplemented with a part in the unique transmitter room that highlights technology. Now the third step is being taken and the exhibition will be complete, by highlighting world heritage in the World Heritage Center. With the extension, the Foundation and its partners want to create the World Heritage Site, whose vision is:
“A place in the countryside, in the world, where people of all ages, interests, seasons, disabilities, origins and other things that can set us apart have the opportunity for boundless, unexpected and rewarding encounters in a unique environment”.
The aim is to create an inspiring, accessible and vibrant place that is used all year round by different target groups. A multifunctional visitor center with the potential, in addition to
being a destination for out-of-town visitors, to be a meeting place for the local population through lasting collaboration. – The development journey the site has made and the planned redevelopment is largely possible because the foundation has invested a lot of its own resources in recent years to move forward. However, this would never have been possible without both public and private partners and financiers believing in us and our ideas. Not least, the Foundation’s trustees and our friends Alexander GVV have given great support to the work, and various donors such as the Swedish National Heritage Board and LLUH have helped to fund specific activities. But most important on this journey, I must say that the incredible Varberg Sparbank has been, which through the Sparbank Foundation was the first to show its support and promise a contribution of SEK 15 million to the realization of the adopted development plan, says Camilla Lugnet.
In 2019, ties were forged for ajointly develop Grimeton World Heritage Site as a sustainable visitor destination.
The World Heritage Site can also be visited during construction
The World Heritage Site is open pretty much as usual during the winter season. Guided tours can be booked for groups and you can also visit the World Heritage Site on most weekdays with a self-check-in ticket. However, the café and shop housed in the visitor center will not be open. On some days, Byssjan will be open and serve light refreshments and offer ticket sales, at other times tickets are sold online on the World Heritage website www.grimeton.org. All activities and opening hours offered during the construction period will also be available on the website. Not least the program for the upcoming anniversary which will be released on 1 December 2024, exactly 100 years after the Grimeton Radio Station went into operation!
PRESS CONTACT
Lena Bager , kommunikation@grimeton.org, +46 768 08 89 25
Camilla Lugnet, camilla.lugnet@grimeton.org
Grimeton World Heritage Radio Station
100 years ago, inventor Ernst Alexanderson was experimenting across the Atlantic. What he didn’t know then was that his invention would pave the way for the emergence of the wireless society. The technology was installed in nine locations around the world, including on the west coast of Sweden in Grimeton. Now Swedes could send a telegram to the United States in less than 20 minutes, unlike letters that took several weeks. This had a major impact on trade relations between the two continents.
In 2004, Grimeton Radio Station was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List of unique natural and cultural sites worthy of preservation for the future. This is partly because the Grimeton station is the only one left of its kind that shows what wireless technology looked like in its cradle, but also what it has technically made possible for us humans. Today, wireless technology is something we all use and sometimes take for granted, which would not have been possible without advances like the one we can witness in Grimeton. The best place in the world to experience wireless communication. A world heritage site with global reach.
