Sultan Abdul Samad Building

Sultan Abdul Samad Building
Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad باڠونن سلطان عبدالصمد
Front view of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building
General information
Type	Government Office
Architectural style	Moorish or Indo-Saracenic Style'
Town or city	Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory
Country	Malaysia
Construction started	3 September 1894
Completed	1897
Inaugurated	4 April 1897
Design and construction
Architect	A.C. Norman R. A. J. Bidwell A. B. Hubback

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building (Malay: Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad; Jawi: باڠونن سلطان عبدالصمد) is a late nineteenth century building located along Jalan Raja in front of the Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The building originally housed the offices of the British colonial administration, and was known simply as Government Offices in its early years, later it was renamed after Sultan Abdul Samad, the reigning sultan of Selangor at the time when construction began.

The building houses the offices of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture of Malaysia (Malay: Kementerian Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan Malaysia). It once housed the superior courts of the country: the Federal Court of Malaysia, the Court of Appeals and the High Court of Malaya. The Federal Court and the Court of Appeals had shifted to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya during the early 2000s, while the High Court of Malaya shifted to the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex in 2007.

The government offices of the British colonial administration was originally located in the Bluff Road (present day Jalan Bukit Aman) area on a hill overlooking the Padang now called Merdeka Square. However, due to the need for more office space and complaints from the public about the necessity of going up and down the hill, the State Engineer of Selangor Public Work Department Charles Edwin Spooner proposed the building of government offices lower down at the plain. The initial suggestion was rejected due to cost, but the British Resident of Selangor William Edward Maxwell accepted a second proposal that cost less.