Originally, the building was a kind of a four-winged Renaissance town castle built in the 1540. The only remaining part of the residence, namely its western wing, emerged as a result of connecting two Gothic houses the Loitzs inherited in the late 15th century. The ornaments of profiled bricks and curtain-like window arches emulated the decoration of the ducal Large House from Barnim XI' s times. After the Loitzs went bankrupt in 1572, their residence passed to the hands of the dukes who used it as lodgings for courtiers. The wing that remained, meticulously reconstructed, has been used by the Art School since 1955.