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The White Building, originally known as the Municipal Apartments, is a prominent and very large apartment building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the major works of New Khmer Architecture. Designed as a 450-metre (1,480 ft) architectural composition on Samdach Sothearos Boulevard near the Bassac River, it was built in 1963 as a symbol of modernism in Cambodia, part of a large composition of civic buildings. Design precedents included Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse. Its architects were Lu Ban Hap, a Khmer, and Russian-French engineer Vladimir Bodiansky, with oversight by Cambodian state architect Vann Molyvann. The White Building was designed to house moderate-income tenants, mainly artists, while the nearby Grey Building was for more prosperous tenants. Tenants fled during the Cambodian Genocide in the 1970s. After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 the White Building was reoccupied by former tenants and squatters. It gradually declined and became known for poverty, drug use and prostitution. Its population in 2015 was about 2500. Several proposals have been made to tear the White Building down for redevelopment.
The building is composed of six blocks of concrete construction, three or four stories tall, connected by open bridge structures, along a double-loaded spine.
Municipal authorities have asserted that the 468-apartment building is structurally deteriorating and is unsafe. Tenants have used the high-ceilinged rooms to add lofts, and balconies have been enclosed, obscuring the once-white building's design. The additions have added weight to the structure. Cracking appeared in 2015 after construction on an adjoining lot. Eviction orders were issued in July 2015. However, the White Building's status as an iconic New Khmer building has stimulated preservation efforts.
