White Building (Phnom Penh)

The White Building was on Samdach Sothearos Boulevard near the Bassac River, a large urban extension project built on reclaimed land in the early 1960s.

The UN consultants Gérald Hanning and Vladimir Bodiansky introduced the concept of the building, a 450-metre (1,480 ft) architectural composition, directly inspired by previous AT.BAT designs built in Morocco.

With the nearby Grey Building, designed by Vann Molyvann, it was initially built for athletes in the 1964 GANEFO (Games of the non-aligned forces) international sports event.

The building was composed of six blocks of concrete construction, three or four stories tall, connected by open bridge structures, along a double-loaded spine.

Tenants used the high-ceilinged rooms to add lofts, and balconies were enclosed, obscuring the once-white building's design and also adding weight to the structure.