There was already a stone building on the corner of Mannerheimintie street and Kaivokatu street in the late1850s. It had been designed by the architect Carl Johan Edvard Gustavsson. He was C.L. Engel's assistant but he designed many private houses as well. The architect Theodor Höijer oversaw the expansion of the building upwards and outwards in the 1870s.
     The Sokos department store was commissioned by the co-operative society, and designed by the architect Erkki

Huttunen. The construction work began in the end of the 1930s. Building took place during wartime, so the process took an exceptionally long time. Soteva, the war reparations' commission, settled in the building after the war. The completed building was the height of modernity. It contained a large department store, offices, a hotel, and several restaurants, one of which, with seating for 1400 customers, was the largest in the Nordic region..