Contributing to Hong Kong's image of a pot forever on the boil, AIA Central replaces the former Furama Hotel, which survived on this site barely thirty years before succumbing to the ceaseless change that marks the very nature of this effervescent city. The land on which this tower block stands had hardly emerged from the sea, in what was then the latest phase of reclamation for the 'New Praya', when the New Oriental Building rose from it in 1897, the first building erected on this portion of a new long retreated waterfront. As the latest incumbent, this particular skyscraper began life in 2005 as AIG Tower, consisting of 40 storeys and providing 26 floors of prime office space, each accommodating some 13,000 to 16,000 lettable square feet.