and the 1900s the population of the city grew by almost 70 thousand people. Railway traffic at the Helsinki railway station increased, and the need for space by the railway administration also increased. As the popularity of railways grew, the original station turned out to be too small. The railway administration started designing a new station building in Helsinki in 1895. Terminus stations such as the Helsinki station at the time were usually U-shaped buildings at the end of the tracks. Bruno Granholm, the architect of the railway administration, designed the administrative building, and the railway administration made the design of the new railway station. In Granholm's plan, the station building was already at the location and shape it ended up being built. The railway administration had already ordered a design for the new station building from the German architect C. O. Gleim, who had won the design contests for the Stockholm Central Station and the Gothenburg Central Station in 1898. The railway administration originally intended to design the new Helsinki railway station unnoticed, without holding an open design contest. A contest was organised in 1902 with the intention of producing plans for a new station. The contest sought to attract the attention of the railway workers to the difficult design task and to the architects capable of such a task. It also encouraged the railway administration to hold an open design contest for the new railway station in Helsinki. The contest did not lead to practical actions, but because of the discussion it caused and the activity of the Finnish Architecture Club, the railway administration decided to hold a new design contest for the facades of the new Helsinki railway station and the administrative building of the railway administration. The railway administration had designed the floor plan of the new railway station as a U-shaped building surrounding the railway tracks. The contestants received a floor plan designed by architect Bruno Granholm about the station building as well as the office and administrative wing attached to it. The floor plan bore a close resemblance to that of the 1888 Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, which the contents were already familiar with. The facade of the station building was defined to be built of natural stone, and that of the administrative building of plastering with a conservative amount of natural stone. There would be a large central hall at the centre of the station,