#Fraser-Nordheimer Building

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Architecture in Montréal (No. 6)

Built in 1888, the Nordheimer building had shops on the ground floor; the next two floors were piano showrooms, and offices occupied the rest of the building. The Neo-Romanesque building is set apart from its neighbours, and from other buildings with similar functions in Old Montreal, by a façade in which pink granite alternates between a polished and a rusticated finish, and by a monumental arch crowned by a finial that unites its central sections.

Merchants Bank A partner of the WTCM project, the Merchants Bank building, constructed in 1873 and heightened in 1901, is today a prestigious hotel called Hotel Le St-James. The building was acquired by a brokerage house, Nesbitt Thomson, in 1929. When the brokerage house left, the building was entirely renovated to become a luxury hotel which opened in 2002. The façade expresses the assurance and stability that early banks sought to embody in richly carved stone buildings, with the goal of impressing and dazzling passersby, seducing investors and making depositors feel safe.

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The Sun Life Building (French: Édifice Sun Life) is a historic 122-metre (400 ft), 24-storey office building at 1155 Metcalfe Street on Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The building was completed in 1931 after three stages of construction. It was built exclusively for the Sun Life Insurance Company. Although the then-new head office of the Royal Bank of Canadaat 360 Saint Jacques Street in Montreal was taller by several floors, the Sun Life Building was at the time the largest building in square footage anywhere in the British Empire. The Sun Life Building went through three different stages of construction, the first one starting as early as 1913, but it was not until 1931 that its main 24-storey tower was erected, thus completing the project.

The stages of construction were as follows:

1913–1918: 7-story southern part of base;

1923–1926: extension of base eastward and northward; and

1929–1931: 16-story set-back tower.

Today, the "Sun Life" is Montreal's 17th tallest building and stands in the middle of the central business district centred on Dorchester Square, dwarfed by neighbouring Place Ville-Marie and the nearby CIBC building.

Source: Wikipedia