The selection of the location and the construction were made by the architect, Friedrich von Gärtner (1792-1847), who served as director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and official architect of the country. Gärtner prepared the plans with respect to the archaeological heritage of Athens.
 

He planned a simple and compact square neoclassical building of 6.994 sq. meters, with four exterior wings (with three floors in each one), one middle wing (with two floors) and the north wing, with no unnecessary decorative elements. The cost of the construction was undertaken by the father of King Otto, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, as personal loan to King Otto. The Greeks secured the land that the building occupied, the square on the front and the royal garden.

The first Parliament operated temporarily first in a private home on Kolokotronis Street, later in the University building, and in 1857 in the building of Stadiou Street - where nowadays the National Historical Museum is housed.
 

During 1884 and 1909 the building suffered damages from fire and finally, the royal family abandoned it in 1910. The buildingʼs function as Parliament Building started in November 1929, when the government decided to transfer the Parliament from the old building on Stadiou Street and house it with the senate in the building of the Old Royal Palace. The architect, Andreas Kriezis, assumed the arrangement of the building and the supervision of the project to convert it to Parliament.

Today it is the headquarters of the Greek Parliament. It houses offices, the auditorium of the Parliament, the office of the President of the Parliament, the Archives and various other services.