Witte Huis 3.28

The Witte Huis or White House is a building and National Heritage Site in Rotterdam, Netherlands, built in 1898 in the Art Nouveau style. The building is 43m tall, with 10 floors. It was also the first hoogbouw (literally: high-rise building) in Europe. The building is listed as a Rijksmonument.ConstructionThe architect Willem Molenbroek designed the 10-storey building, at the time an unprecedented height in Europe. 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. The building is constructed from iron and steel and concrete, and includes two thick interior walls which increase the building's strength. Unlike many other contemporary buildings of the time, wood was not a significant construction material due to the fear of fire. The building cost 127,900 Dutch guilders.It was also one of the few buildings in central Rotterdam to survive the German bombing campaigns of World War II.