The idea of erecting a large representative building near the House of Unions arose in the mid-1920s. In 1926, a competition was held for the design of the building for the State Bank of the USSR, however, construction on this site was also abandoned and the old Bank building on Neglinnaya Street was reconstructed according to the project of Ivan Zholtovsky. In the early 1930s, simultaneously with the competition for the Mossovet hotel, a competition was announced for the project of the Hotel Intourist on the other side of the street, but soon this project was abandoned and the Soviet authorities decided to build an office building for the Council of Labor and Defense on the site.
