Sultan Abdul Samad Building

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building (Malay: Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad; Jawi: باڠونن سلطان عبدالصمد) is a late-19th-century building located along Jalan Raja in front of Dataran Merdeka 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. In 1974, it was renamed after Sultan Abdul Samad, the reigning sultan of Selangor at the time when construction began.

The building 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 relocated to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya in 2003, while the High Court of Malaya shifted to the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex in Segambut in 2007. Later, it housed the offices of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Malaysia.

The building was most recently restored in 2026, and contains galleries, exhibition spaces and several cafés.

History

Origin and design

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 Works Department Charles Edwin Spooner proposed the building of government offices lower down on the plain near the river. The initial suggestion was rejected due to cost, but the British Resident of Selangor William Edward Maxwell accepted a second proposal that cost less.

The building was originally designed by A.C. Norman and his assistant R. A. J. Bidwell in a Classical Renaissance style, but Spooner disliked the design.