Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim (Building) at Johor Bahru

Bagunan Sultan Ibrahim (N1 27.471 E103 45.666) is located on Bukit Timbalan (Hill) at Johor Bahru Town. It houses the State Secretariat and the offices of the state government for 67 years until Johor state government announced that they will relocate to Kota Iskandar - Nusajaya, Johor State New Administrative Center in 2010.


"The foundation works for Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim began with the officiated ground breaking ceremony by Tengku Mahkota Sultan Ismail on Monday, 7th November 1938.The Royal Highness later laid the foundation stone on 10th March 1940. The building was complete in 1942 at a cost of $2 million. A banquet was held at the Royal Palace on Tuesday, 3rd November 1942 to mark the official opening of the state government office.

The building was designed by the architectural firm of Palmer & Turner, which was also responsible for designing Hospital Sultan Aminah. The building is a combination of the cosmopolitan architecture of Renaissance style with an overlay of Anglo-Malay influence. The building was constructed by local craftsmen under the supervision of an European architect.

On Monday, 9th August 1982, the building was officially named as Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim by Al-Marhum Sultan Iskandar Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Ismail, Sultan of Johor at that time.

It was the tallest building in Malaya during the pre-Merdeka era. In Johor Bahru itself, it stood unchallenged as the tallest building in town until the completion of the Merlin Tower in 1970's. Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim was the symbol of Johor's progress at that time and still remains as the landmark of Johor Bahru." Source from here.

We visited the building because of the Johor Bahru (JB) Art Festival 2010 which located behind the building. (I will blog about it later...) Before the shows start, I took the chance to snapped some night photos of the Colonial building of Johor Bahru.


I hanged up the area quite a while, and continue to the stage when the JB Art Festival had began...