“French protectorate: by 1980, more coherent planning and oversight of the city had begun with collective drainage programs and city beautification initiatives. The creation of open public spaces and a series of public buildings accompanied this campaign. French engineers drew plans for roads and designed buildings following the methods established by manuals of Public Works. The architecture of the new public buildings genrally copied Parisian models adapted to tropical settings. With the exception of some urban spaces, roads were brought under a uniform code which decreed their width to be twenty meters.”
In 1953 Cambodia became an independent nation followed by a rapid period of development.