Witte Huis

The Witte Huis (White House) was designed at the end of the 19th century by the architect Willem Molenbroek, who was commissioned by the Gerrit and Herman van der Schuyt brothers. The eleven-storey building, constructed between 1897 and 1898, was the tallest office building in Rotterdam and it is considered as the Europe's first skyscraper.

Due to the plot of the building was only one meter above sea level, skeptics claimed that the soft ground of the city could not support the building's weight, so before the construction 1.000 piles were introduced into the ground. The building is made of iron, steel and cement, with two thick interior walls to increase its strength. The Witte Huis, classified as a Dutch National Monument, is one of the few buildings in Rotterdam centre that survived the German bombardments of May 14, 1940. 

Project date: 1897