page_title: Writers' Building
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Writers' Building / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Reflection of Writers' Building on Lal Dighi
context_page_description: The Writers' Building, often shortened to just Writers', is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. It is located in West Bengal's capital city of Kolkata. The 150-meter long building covers the entire northern stretch of the iconic Lal Dighi pond in the downtown area of B.B.D. Bagh.
  It originally served as the principal administrative office for writers of the British East India Company. Designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777, the Writers' Building has gone through several extensions over the years. Since India's independence in 1947, it housed the office of the Chief Minister of West Bengal until 4 October 2013. The majority of government departments were subsequently moved out to another building named Nabanna in Howrah on a temporary basis for facilitating renovation.
  The building has been called a mini-township of sorts with a built-up area of around 550,000 square feet. Before the shifting of the state secretariat, the building housed 34 departments and other offices of the state government, with approximately 6,000 employees.
  As of August, 2019, the renovation of the building continues.
context_section_description: The giant pediment at the centre is crowned with the statue of Minerva. The terrace also contains several other statues and notable among them are four clusters of statues, christened 'Justice', 'Commerce', 'Science' and 'Agriculture', with the respective Greek gods and goddesses of these four disciplines (Zeus, Hermes, Athena and Demeter respectively) flanked by a European and an Indian practitioner of these vocations.
caption: Writers' Building from across Lal Dighi in B.B.D. Bagh
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