1940

Under the leadership of CEO Harry Gullichsen, Ahlström gave Alvar Aalto many assignments on the industrial places of the company. Between 1943 and 1945, Aalto expanded the earlier city plan into a master plan in order to guarantee the growth potential of the industrial town. Similar planning was done in Karhula, Kotka in 1954. Perhaps the most famous of Aalto’s designs in Karhula are the residential houses on Karhunkatu, which are called as the Tennis houses. As a part owner of the Sunila Osakeyhtiö, Ahlström with the Chairman of the Board, Harry Gullichsen, proposed that the architect of the major project of planning the mill and the residential community for the Sunila Oy in Karhula would be Alvar Aalto. The project was carried out mainly in the 1930’s and 1940’s.