Gedung Sate, with its characteristic ornament that resembles a stick, was a landmark building for the town of Bandung for quite a while. Not only for residents of Bandung or West Java, but people around Indonesia recognize the style of the construction that has been an example for several other buildings in West Java The structure of the railway station in Tasikmalaya is a good example. It had been constructed in 1920, and as of today, the still white authorities building is currently used as the center of power for the province of West Java.
During the Dutch colonial time, Gedung Sate was known as the GouvernementsBedrijven or G.B. The first stone was laid by Johanna Catherina Coops, the eldest daughter of the mayor of Bandung, B. Coops and his wife PetronellaRoelofsen, which were the representatives of this Governor-General at Batavia, J.P. Graaf van Limburg Stirum, in 27 July 1920. The construction is the result of a planning team which was made up from Ir. J. Gerber, a young architect with title in the TechnischeUniversiteit Delft in the Netherlands, Ir. Eh. G Hendriks from the local authorities of Bandoeng.
Approximately 2.000 people were involved in the building of this building. 150 of these were exceptionally skilled wood and stone workers from the Chinese areas of Konghu and Kanton. They worked to the GedongSirap building at the campus of the TechnischeHoogeschoolBandoeng (nowadays InstitutTeknologi Bandung and GedongPapak, the town hall of Bandung.
After four years of construction, in September 1924, the main building for the GouvernementsBedrijven was finished, as well as the primary office for the PTT (Post, Telefoon en Telegraaf, Mail, Telephone and Telegraph) and a library.
The architecture of Gedung Sate is a job of Ir. J. Gerber and his group that had in mind to create a layout that closely resembled the works of famous Dutch architect Dr. Hendrik Petrus who utilized many traditional attributes from all around Indonesia in his layouts. Many architects and structural designers say Gedung Sate is a massive building that conveys a unique architectural design, which is known as Indo-European design.
Inside and around the building
Gedung Sate is utilized as the office for the Governor and vice-governor since 1980, but also as the initial construction of this government of this state of West Java. Earlier they had been located in GedungKertaMukti in Jalan Braga. The offices of the Senate and vice-governor are Located on the second floor of the building. Not all workers around them operate In Gedung Sate, a number of them work in GedungBaru.
