Presidential Office Building, Taipei
The Republic of China's government headquarters
The Presidential Office Building is the official workplace of the president of the Republic of China on Taiwan. The building, located in the Zhongzheng District in the national capital — Taipei, was designed by architect Uheiji Nagano during the period of Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895–1945). The structure originally housed the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. The right wing of the building was damaged in Allied bombing during World War II, which was restored after the war by Chen Yi, the governor-general of Taiwan Province. It became the Presidential Office in 1950 after the government of the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated the nation's capital to Taipei at the end of the Chinese Civil War. At present, this Baroque-style building is a symbol of the central government and a famous historical landmark in downtown Taipei.
History
At the time Japanese rule of Taiwan and the Pescadores began in 1895, the governor-general of Taiwan set up temporary headquarters at the former Qing dynasty secretariat. The new rulers began making long-term plans for development of the island. The plans soon included building a new headquarters for the governor-general. A two-stage architectural design contest was held in 1906 and 1910.
“Presidential Office Building, Taipei” enters the record as the Republic of China's government headquarters. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Presidential, Office and Building can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Presidential Office Building, Taipei” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Presidential, Office and Building provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55601. Authority coordinates are 25.040, 121.512. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1945, 1950 and 1906.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Presidential Office Building, Taipei”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Presidential Office Building, Taipei primary sources, Presidential Office Building, Taipei archive and Presidential research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Presidential Office Building, Taipei”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Presidential Office Building, Taipei” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.