Originally the building had family accommodation on each of the main floors comprising two spacious bedrooms, lounge, dining room, kitchen and pantry as well as a large office. Further facilities for research were a laboratory in the basement and two large work spaces in the attic which also had access to the observation tower and the roof platform. The observation tower was reconstructed according to the original drawings in 1999 as it had been removed in the 1960s. The building was designed by the architect and official land surveyor Peter Arnet Amundsen who had then recently established a practice in Tromsø.