[1][4] In May 2000, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed the Military Installations Closed Areas (Amendment) Order 2000, which renamed the former Prince of Wales Barracks to Central Barracks, and the Prince of Wales Building to the Chinese People's Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building.

After the base became the Central Barracks, the old name of the building remained visible in large raised letters along the bottom of the tower for several years.

Architects attribute the shape of the building to passive protection, its narrow stem with the protruding upper storeys, supposedly makes it difficult to climb or attack.

The corner of the building at the podium level which faces east (towards Admiralty MTR station) used to be a chapel under British use of the barracks.

There used to be a crucifix visible on the exterior—however, during external refurbishment (including replacing the 'Prince of Wales Building' inscription in English with its current name in Chinese) in 2001, the cross was removed.