However, the design as built differs in the shape and location of the tower on the lot from that envisaged in the 1964 plan for redevelopment of the square.

Between May and November 2005 the entire 15,000-square-metre (160,000 sq ft) façade was replaced; the 6,800 new mirror-glass panes cost €3 million.

[3] The base of the tower rises from a three-story commercial building with its largest tenants being Burger King and Primark amongst some smaller stores.

The top floor offers direct access to the adjacent Galeria department store, which had been a Centrum Warenhaus in the GDR.

For 15 years, the ground floor and basement levels housed Berlin's first Saturn electronics store (like Galeria, formerly a division of Metro), but in March 2009 this outlet relocated to a new adjacent building.