On the night of 23 August 1973, a fire broke out in the upper floors of the building's shell, which was widely visible throughout the city and attracted many onlookers.

Arson was initially blamed, however, it was deemed unlikely as the cause of the fire, as defective welding tools apparently set the woodwork on the 40th and 41st floors ablaze.

It consists of a centrally arranged core group with external dimensions of 17.4 m × 14.2 m and two mutually offset storey wings, each 40 m long and 14.1 m wide.

From October 2007 to December 2008, City-Haus was redesigned by Christoph Mäckler fully refurbished with a new façade and an overall brighter appearance.

During the conversion time could damage the renter will be minimized because the new façade was suspended during the week from outside the Altfassade which was just on the weekends.