The company was planning a new office tower to replace the old Mountain Bell building, which was originally built in 1953 as a Fedway department store and was notable for having New Mexico's first escalator.

[6][7] Concurrently, the city was planning a major expansion of the Albuquerque Convention Center and convinced BetaWest to add a luxury hotel to the proposed development.

Both of the Albuquerque Plaza towers were sold to Crescent Real Estate Equities of Fort Worth in 1995 for $69 million, though US West kept its offices in the building.

[12] Albuquerque Plaza is 351 feet (107 m) tall and has 22 stories, making it New Mexico's tallest building by both height and floor count.

It is constructed from reinforced concrete with pink granite trim, and both towers are capped with distinctive pyramidal roofs which contain mechanical equipment.

[9] At the building's main entrance is a bronze sculpture by Glenna Goodacre called "Sidewalk Society" which depicts nine life-sized people engaged in various activities on the street corner.

The racial politics of the piece have attracted some criticism, especially a scene apparently depicting a Hispanic man with a hard hat being given instructions by a white supervisor, but the overall reception of the work was mostly positive.

[18] In addition to providing downtown Albuquerque with 357,000 sq ft (33,200 m2) of commercial office space, the tallest building in New Mexico is also one of the state's most sustainable structures.

The system helps alleviate the building's dependence on the electric grid, cut carbon emissions and reduces the energy required to cool its occupants.