Martin Nyrop (11 November 1849 – 18 May 1921) was a Danish architect.

Early life and education

Nyrop was born on 11 November 1849 at Holmsland, Ringkøbing, the son of parish priest Christopher Nyrop (1805–1879) and Helene Ahlmann (1807–1874). He attended Sorø Academy and matriculated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1876. From 1881 to 1883, he studied abroad on a scholarship from the academy.

Career

From 1883 to 1893, Nyrop worked as an assistant for professor Hans Jørgen Holm but was at the same time able to work on his personal commissions. Most of his early independent works were single-family detached homes. He experienced a breakthrough when he won the competition for the design of the buildings at the Nordic Exhibition of 1888. He constructed all his exhibition pavilions of wood at a time when iron and glass was favored for temporary structures. He justified the decision by claiming the result would be prettier for the same cost. His background as a carpenter may have been an influence and it gave him the opportunity to showcase his ideals of quality materials and visible construction principles. From 1888 to 1891, he served on the Copenhagen City Council. Nyrop was awarded the Grand Prix for design at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1900. In 1906, he became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture and served as director of the Academy of Fine Arts for periods between 1908 and 1918. Nyrop designed the Copenhagen City Hall (1905) in National Romantic style and the majority of the buildings for the Nordic Industrial, Agricultural and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen (1888).

Personal life

Nyrop married Louise Frederikke Laub (born 1851), daughter of parish priest Hans Jørgen Trojel Laub (1817–1863) and Ernestine Laub née Linnemann (1827–1885), on 15 August 1885 in Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen. Their children included daughter Ernestine Nyrop.

Selected buildings

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