In a book I am reading at the moment an architect pitches the idea of a building in the shape of a rainbow that has two sets of foundations, one in one country and one in another. The following is quoted from the book:
Is there any truth in this? Let’s say for the sake of argument that the building has separate addresses, one in each country. Is there any real-world advantage to be had from doing this?
On a side note, are there any buildings that straddle international boundaries?
The public Library in Derby Line, Vermont, is also the public library in Stanstead, Quebec. The post-9/11 regulations have really been a pain for the residents of these two towns, which are historically almost one town.
the blue buildings in this photo are half in South Korea and half in North Korea:
the border is the slightly raised concrete line on the ground.
There are many buildings that straddle the Belgium-Netherlands border in Baarle Nassau
That would be a big building. And the Swiss might have something to say about it.
(Liechtenstein is sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria. France is on the other side of Switzerland. Perhaps he was thinking of Monaco.)
exactly meets the OP’s criteria:
As each house is deemed to pay taxes in the country where its front door is located, it is an old tradition in Baarle to move the front door some meters if that is profitable for the taxes, especially for shops. This is part of making the best out of a strange situation. In 1995 a remeasurement of all the borders of enclaves according to modern exact standards was completed. This gave rise to some problems of this kind. In at least one case a house would have had to move from Belgium to the Netherlands. The inhabitants did not want that to happen, but the solution was simple: they moved the front door of their house.
I would imagine the governments involved would treat a large company like Carowinds, an amusement park that straddles the line between North and South Carolina. It’s physical address is in NC, but a thread here explains that it is more or less operated as two parks, with each side subject to the laws of whichever state it is in. Examples, 16 year olds can operate rides on one side while they have to be 18 on the other, security has certain authority on one side and less on the other, and taxes are assessed depending on where in the park the money was collected.
Assuming an international company would be subject to a similar arrangement, I guess they could pick which country to pay taxes in and put their sales, billing, collections etc in that country, and put everything else on the other side, but it doesn’t seem like there would be any huge advantage that companies don’t already exploit. It’s kinda like a US company locating it’s manufacturing in Mexico for cheaper labor, except in this case the two parts would be physically connected on the border.
Here’s an interesting article about Derby Line. IIRC someone here gave me this link in another thread, so thanks to you, whoever you were.
There are a lot of towns/buildings like that on the Quebec border. I recall hearing about a bar where the actual bar itself was on one side of the border and the pool table was on the other side.
Closer to (my) home, the airport in Piney, Manitoba and Pine Creek Minnesota has the terminal in Canada, and the runway in the US.
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I don’t really know why this is supposed to work any different to seperate offices in each country. Each country will have laws about jurisdiction based on place of business etc. Whether your building does or does not straddle the boundary is not likely to be what makes the difference. Tax etc laws are likely to have or not have applicability depending upon definitions and rulings about place of business, registered address etc and these are going to be what they are, whether your building straddles the boundary or not.
National Geographic had a photo of that place—They explained that the pool table was placed on the American side so the owners would not need to pay an entertainment tax (whatever the hell that is) on the pool table’s earnings…
I suspect Luxembourg.
There’s the Avantis business park which straddles the border between Germany and the Netherlands.
Here it is on Google Maps. The HQ of Solland Solar that you can see there is a single building that straddles the border (note the place markers for Solland Solar Cells GmbH on the German side, Solland Solar Energy BV on the Dutch side). On Street View you can see the border marker in front of the building (note that only the Dutch segment is covered by Street View - the blue street highlighting stops right at the border).
On the company’s website you can see that there are two addresses, one in each country, with adjacent street addresses, but it is all one building.
The German/Dutch border runs right through the middle of quite a few communities in this area. Another divided building nearby is the Eurode Business Center (its website doesn’t seem to have an English version unfortunately). The border runs down the middle of Nieuwstraat and then divides the building down the centre (Street View)
The airport in Basel, France/Swizerland, straddles the border of those two countries.
ETA: looked up and I was wrong, the airport is physically totally on the France side, but operated for customs purposes in two separate jurisdicitions.
As does Geneva Airport
Fascinating. How exactly is ‘the front door’ determined - is it whichever door the building owner says it is?
I could picture one of these shops, for instance, getting most of their clientele coming in and out through the ‘back door’ that faces a Netherlands main street, but keeping their ‘front door’ into a Belgian back alley. 
The runway at Piney Pinecreek Border Airport crosses the US/Canadian border. (Google Maps link).
There are two other US/Canadian cross-border airports mentioned on that Wiki page too.
There are a handful of houses on the border between Estcourt Station, Maine, and Pohenegamook, Quebec. At the time they were built they were thought to be entirely in Quebec but a later survey showed them bisected by the border. The people who live in those houses have special permission to walk across the border without passing through customs, so long as they stay on their own property.
Chateau Chenonceau is the famous French chateau that was built on a bridge and straddles a river with doors on both sides. Apparently it was on the border between occupied France and Vichy during WWII and the locals took advantage of that to some extent, according to the guidebook.
There’s a building that straddles the border between north and south korea. The odd thing is that you are actually allowed to walk to the other end of the building.
And my MIL works in a building that is half in Kansas and half in Missouri.