The building's cylindrical glass facade was meant to evoke the velocity of the game, which was then a craze in the city.

While the Sky Room became a venue of meetings and receptions during the Commonwealth and early years after Independence, the building had degenerated into a place of game-rigging, syndication and other forms of cheating.

[5] When Lito Atienza was elected Mayor of Manila in 1998, he immediately undertook several urban renewal projects in the city.

[7] On August 22, 2012, there was a so-called "ground-breaking" for a new House of Justice hall on the lot with the GSIS old building, the eighth such ceremony.

[8] The demolition led to the passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 and other efforts to preserve historic buildings, which has had mixed results.