The Witte Huis (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌʋɪtə ˈɦœys]) or White House is a building and National Heritage Site in Rotterdam, Netherlands, built in 1898 in the Art Nouveau style.
The architect Willem Molenbroek designed the 10-storey building, at the time an unprecedented height in Europe.
[1] The site at Wijnhaven 3 is just 1 m above sea-level and skeptics claimed that the soft soil of Rotterdam would be unable to adequately support the building, so before construction could properly begin, 1000 piles were driven into the ground to support the building's weight.
Unlike many other contemporary buildings of the time, wood was not a significant construction material due to the fear of fire.
It was one of the few buildings in central Rotterdam to survive the German bombing campaigns of World War II.