City-Center

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The City-Center is a famous office and shopping centre building located in the centre of Helsinki, Finland, right across the street from the Helsinki Central railway station. The building was constructed in 1967 and was designed by the Finnish architect Viljo Revell.

In Finland, the building is popularly known as Makkaratalo (Finnish for "sausage house"). The reason for this name is the railing encircling the elevated parking lot occupying the third floor of the building, which is said to look like a sausage. The first occurrence of the name was in a cartoon drawn by the Finnish cartoonist Kari Suomalainen. In the cartoon, a man is buying food from a snack bar near the City-Center. He points at the railing, and the snack bar vendor replies "Well, I'm just a small-time businessman."

In 2000, the Finnish real estate company Sponda bought the City-Center and has extensively renovated it. The building is currently protected by the Finnish Museum Bureau as part of the city's heritage.

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