The Centre William Rappard at Rue de Lausanne 154, Geneva, Switzerland, was built between 1923 and 1926 to house the International Labour Office (ILO).

[1] In 1975 the ILO moved to Grand Saconnex and in 1977 the Centre William Rappard was occupied by the secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the library of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

By 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced the GATT and became the main occupant of the Centre William Rappard.

In 1975 the ILO moved to neighbouring Grand Saconnex and the property was owned by the Building Foundation for International Organizations (FIPOI), of the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva.

In 2007, following research conducted at the ILO archives and WTO locations, various hidden artworks were rediscovered and exposed to visitors.

After considering several options, the Swiss authorities and the WTO have reached an agreement in early August 2008 to renovate, extend and improve the Centre William Rappard.

Épitaux hired renowned sculptors and artisans, including Luc Jaggi (1887–1976), Maurice Sarki (Sarkissoff) (1882–1946), León Perrin (1886–1978), and others.

The new building in the south of the Centre William Rappard, by Jen Wittfoht of Stuttgart, Germany, achieves discretion, dialogue between modern and classic, efficiency, low energy standards and integration to the space (street, park and lake).

Materials have been selected on the basis of a life cycle assessment, considering all the energy required for their production, manufacture, use and recycling.

A protective film installed on the windows also helps to create better insulation, repeals ultraviolet radiations and reduces energy costs.

Heating and cooling systems are supplied by the deep waters of the lake, which are transported and distributed according to a hydrothermal network.

Some of these artworks are Maurice Denis’s The Dignity of Labour (1931), Seán Keating’s Irish Industrial Development (1961), Jorge Colaço’s Grape-harvesting, Ploughing the soil and Fishing tiled panels (1928), Luc Jaggi’s Peace and Justice statues (1925), Albert Hahn Jr.’s Delft panel (1926), Gustave-Louis Jaulmes’s Universal Joy, Work in Abundance and The Benefits of Leisure murals (1940), Dean Cornwell’s murals on labour (1955), Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera’s Pygmalion (1925), and Gilbert Bayes’s Child with Fish (or Blue Robed Bambino) fountain (1926).

Among the recent donations and acquisitions are Jean-Claude Prêtre's Danaé World Suite / 11 September 2001, and Catherine Bolle's Outre Terre.

Following Swiss standards for the protection of international organizations and foreign officers, security installations were built, including a perimeter around the building.

[8] In October 2019, after a heated debate and strong resistance by many WTO staff members and delegates, the caricature painting In GATT We Trust by the interpreter and artist Claude Namy was removed from the entrance hall and sent to an underground deposit.

Furthermore, the artist reproduced the motto in a way that the capital “T” of Trust is placed at a lower level than the text, leaving the title to be read as “In GATT We Rust”.

In 2013, it was finally hung in Room B" [9] By June 2019, within the context of the MeToo movement, negative perceptions arose among staff members.

After several internal discussions that were dominated by the gender debate, the Director-General Roberto Azevêdo decided that the painting should be removed, which was done on 2 October 2019.