The building is the realization of Jakob + Macfarlane's winning design in a 2005 competition intended to create interest in the industrial Confluence area, one requirement of which was the inclusion of negative space; the building's two conical voids, as well as drawing in cool air, create, according to "Architectural Record"<nowiki></nowiki>'s Jenna M. McKnight, “an extraordinary dialogue with the river, almost bringing it inside."