Ambassador
Ambassador's Residence
Villa Otium
The Ambassador’s Residence in Oslo, built in 1911, was designed by renowned Norwegian architect Henrik Bull for Hans Andreas Olsen, the Norwegian Consul General at St. Petersburg and his wife Ester, the niece of Alfred Nobel. The building recalls a Russian palace the family admired. Its grand scale and opulent detail speak of the wealth the family acquired in the petroleum business in Czarist Russia.
The three-story villa is stylistically Art Nouveau, or Jugendstyle. The asymmetrical, yet balanced composition is elegantly drafted. Bull, who also designed the National Theater and the Historical Museum in Oslo, was Norway’s leading architect at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Villa Otium represents his most important residence. A significant portion of its furnishings was purchased from Jacques Bodart in Paris.
The surrounding garden preserves the connection of architecture and nature even though now reduced in size by three-quarters. The property comprises the old “Otium,” or park meant for leisure. Mrs. Olsen sold the property to the United States Government in 1924 — the $125,000
price reportedly making it the most expensive American residence abroad at the time and requiring Congressional approval.
The Norwegian Preservation Agency has identified the Villa Otium as significant historical architecture.
The information above is excerpted from the Department of State publication "The Secretary of State's Register of Culturally Significant Property: Selected Property Briefs"