The northeastern side of the Jodenbreestraat had been designated as a market in a 1953 city plan, but in 1968 these plans were adapted and a mixed building, combining office space for the University of Amsterdam with space for the textile wholesalers of the nearby Sint Antoniesbreestraat.

[3] In addition, the "Central Business District", which the city had envisioned as large enough to include the new building, was never extended as far.

[1] As a result, the Maupoleum remained isolated, without an environment to blend in:[4] "What should have been a marked orchestration of the flow to and from the city centre was now reduced to an incursion, a mere incident.

The Maupoleum was made to look ridiculous: 'It’s standing alone there out on a limb', [its building's architect Piet] Zanstra conceded some years later".

[1] Although a paragon of Brutalist architecture, for its out-of-placeness the "grey, looming giant came to symbolize the arrogant, large-scale plans of the Amsterdam municipality" for many Amsterdammers.