Originally constructed 1970 – 1973 as the building of the Berliner Verlag publishing house, the Pressehaus am Alexanderplatz was designed by architects Karl-Ernst Swora, Rainer Hanslik, Günter Derdau, Waldemar Seifert, and Gerhard Voss. Conceived as a competitor to the Axel-Springer-Hochhaus of West Berlin in 1965, the original ensemble consists of a 92-meter tall high-rise, accompanied by the low rise strucutre od the Pressecafe, overlooking Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

While carefully restorating the historic ensemble, its facade and Willi Neubert’s (1920–2011) distinctive outdoor frieze at the Press Cafe, GMP Architects also a new podium building, carefully curving around the back of  the high-rise, building a more subtle approach to the adjacent Scheunenviertel and its Berlin-sized scale.