In 1891, Vienna's boundaries were extended to include the outer suburbs (Vororte), adding nine further districts (Bezirke) to the existing ten, and bringing the total population to 1,365,170. Vienna was at this time both capital city and seat of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to Baedeker's 1892 guide to the city, its reputation as a place of artistic importance had grown considerably over the preceding decades, especially with the construction of the Ringstrasse and its collection of impressive monumental buildings. Begun in 1861 and completed in 1873, the Ringstrasse provided the impetus for the development and expansion of Vienna. By the turn of the century, however, competing views on future urban planning had emerged. In Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (1889), the architect and city planner Camillo Sitte praised the historicism of the representative buildings on the Ringstrasse, including the Parliament, built in classical Greek style, the university, in the style of the Renaissance, the Burgtheater, in baroque style, and the Gothic Rathaus. He was, however, critical of the uniform grid system of the modern city that takes the street as its basic element. His alternative, based on the idea of the “organic” mediaeval city, took the city square as its central feature.