The Gerngross Shopping Centre is infact a former department store with a significantly redesigned interior and an eyecatching exterior.  The "In Your PocketGuide to Vienna" describes it as a, ".... cool modern shopping centre in the middle of Vienna’s major commercial street (that) sells a wide variety of well-known fashion brands for men, women and children. The Merkur supermarket on the lower level is one of Vienna’s best-stocked groceries. On the top three floors are the city’s largest sports and electronic appliances stores, as well as the Japanese diner Akakiko where you can enjoy your sushi and other Asian delicacies or Brandauer with it´s traditional Austrian food, both on the terrace with a beautiful view."

The archello.com website says that the restructuring of the building was motivated by the fact that the, "... layout of the store was not intuitive. Walkways were complex and confusing, and it was difficult to navigate. To improve this, the layout of the indoor levels (G, 1st, 2nd, and 5th) has been entirely re-designed and smaller retail spaces have been added. The key to designing the individual levels was to think “empty” in order to enable the future implementation of an improved orientation system. The preconditions for this complex undertaking were: - For each rental space, a newer space of equal size but higher quality had to be provided. - Each tenant had to be relocated twice during the construction time. - The ongoing daily shopping activity should be only minimally disturbed."

"The facade of the new building forms the logical continuation of the interior: the ice-floe theme of the interior space continues on the new facade. To this end, large-scale, amorphous colour fields were applied. Leaving some space in between, an ornamentally designed, semi-transparent white area was then attached. Together, these layers form a conglomerate of light and colour. In the evening, this effect is reinforced by a lighting concept between the two layers of the facade. A large-scale white frame also emphasises some areas of the facade (e.g. main entrance, bay), thereby showing them off to their best possible advantage. Due to the large scale of the facade, the entire building is harmonized, and the true size of the building is emphasised."(archello.com website)