The initial models of the palace by Paduan architect Girolamo Frigimelica Roberti still exist, but the design of the main building was ultimately completed by Francesco Maria Preti.

[1] From the outside, the façade of the oversized palace appears to command the site, facing the Brenta River some 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Venice.

The broad façade is topped with statuary, and presents an exuberantly decorated center entrance with monumental columns shouldered by atlantes (an atlas being a male version of a caryatid).

The largest room is the ballroom, where the 18th-century painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo frescoed the two-storey ceiling with a massive allegorical depiction of the Apotheosis or Glory of the Pisani family (painted 1760–1762).

The Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni described the palace in its day as a place of "great fun, served meals, dance and shows".