Maakri

Brief information

Maakri stands out for a juxtaposition that is rare in the city center: it is Tallinn’s first quarter of high-rise buildings, yet houses from the early 20th century have survived within it. The new business development here did not erase the earlier industrial and school-related layer: by 2025, four historical buildings within the quarter were listed as architectural monuments.

The quarter’s name came from Maakri Street, and the street’s name came from the Maker family, who worked and lived here in the early 20th century. Their dyeing workshop was located at Maakri 23. This is why the old production buildings in the quarter are important not as a backdrop for the high-rises, but as a direct explanation of why the business district grew precisely on a former working-class industrial site.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the two scales of Maakri: the quarter’s boundaries are defined by ordinary streets and pedestrian passages, while high-rise office buildings stand inside. This contrast reveals the main principle of the place: the new business center has been integrated into an area with dense early development, rather than placed on an empty field.

The old layer is best seen through specific buildings. The complex at Maakri 19 consists of former production buildings that were remodeled for years to meet the owners’ needs; house 19/2 preserves the more intimate scale of a two-story stone building with an attic floor. The building at Maakri 23 is connected with dry cleaning and dyeing and is described as a historicist-style structure. At Maakri 25, the gate detail is important: it is a copy of the earlier structure, meaning that the memory of the factory has been preserved not only in the name. The modern layer follows a different logic: the 30-story office building is noted for its unitized facade without edging strips, where the engineering precision of the new high-rise architecture is already apparent.