In 1926, a second urban plan called for a railway station just to the west of this core area and a large central market on its northern boundary. The Art Deco–style Psar Nath, a retail complex designed by the same French architects who would produce Phnom Penh’s landmark Central Market, opened a decade later. Then came the heady days following independence in 1954, when a Modernist-influenced architectural style dubbed New Khmer Architecture swept the nation. Sak shows me a fine example of this on Street No. 1—the Sangker Cinema, completed in the mid-1960s and now used as a government workshop.
All told, the heritage zone of Battambang’s inner city comprises approximately 800 buildings of historic significance. But while most emerged unscathed from the turbulent days of the Khmer Rouge, they now face another threat, in the form of newfound prosperity and full-bore development.
I follow Sak north from Psar Nath, whose east end is slated to become a Toyota showroom. As we enter Street No. 2, the municipal makeover is immediately apparent. For every unaffected structure, such as the circa-1930 Cantonese Association building with its original facade still intact, there is a shophouse buried beneath an additional floor, a cemented-in arcade, or tiled-over plasterwork that blocks the view or interrupts the streetscape.
