sentences:  The edifice was built in the new section of the city (developed by the Italians in the late 1930s) and it was a famous symbol of modernist (art deco) architecture.Following independence in 1960, the building became the presidential palace of the President of the Somali Republic.After the start of the civil war and the overthrow of the Siad Barre administration in the early 1990s, various local faction leaders fought for control of and installed themselves in the residence.