Designed by Shiv Nath Prasad in collaboration with Mahendra Raj, it is one of Delhi's best known examples of brutalist architecture and bears semblance to the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, France.

The use of a transfer girder in the transitional floors of the building allowed for the creation of a column free lobby, a feature that came to be adopted widely in hotel design.

The interior decoration also featured kalamkari prints in its conference room, Birbal, and used Rajput, Mughal and Kangra miniature paintings and Tibetan thangkas in the suites.

[20] Its coffee shop, Madhuban, was noted for the Mithila murals decorating its walls which was a pioneering attempt to commercialize and give the artform a modern identity.

[34][35][36][37] However, by the early 1980s it began to incur losses and ITDC suffered low occupancy in its hotels following the construction boom in the run up to the 1982 Asian Games.

[40][41] The Government of India planned to redevelop the building into a five-star hotel with private partnership in the run up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but it was never implemented.