Sun Life Building
The Sun Life Building on Dorchester Square in Montreal is a monument of empire and commerce on an almost incomprehensible scale — its final phase, completed in 1931, made it the largest building in the British Commonwealth, a title it held for over two decades. The firm of Darling and Pearson designed the building in three campaigns between 1913 and 1931, each addition expanding the Corinthian colonnade that wraps the entire structure in a continuous classical rhythm of white Stanstead granite. Twenty-six stories rise above the square, flanked on one side by Mary Queen of the World Cathedral and on the other by the open lawn of the park — an ensemble that reads, even today, as Montreal’s civic centerpiece. During the Second World War the building’s sub-basement vault held the British Crown Jewels and the gold reserves of England and several occupied European nations, shipped across the Atlantic in secret under the codename Operation Fish. A National Historic Site of Canada, the building remains the headquarters of Sun Life Financial and is open to visitors at street level.
At a glance
- Type
- Office tower
- Period
- 1913–1931 (three construction phases)
- Style
- Beaux-Arts / Neoclassical
- Location
- Dorchester Square, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Coordinates
- 45.4990° N, 73.5693° W
- Architect(s)
- Darling & Pearson
Overview
The Sun Life Building occupies the full block between Metcalfe and Peel streets facing Dorchester Square in central Montreal. Its construction history spans nearly two decades: the first phase of nine stories opened in 1918, a second addition to fifteen stories followed in 1923, and the final expansion to twenty-six stories was completed in 1931. Each phase maintained the same design vocabulary of Corinthian columns and white granite, so the building reads as a unified composition despite its incremental construction. At completion it contained over 50,000 square meters of office space and employed an on-site staff of several hundred for building operations alone. Its position facing the cathedral and the square gives it an unusual civic presence for a commercial office building.
History
Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada commissioned the building in 1910 to house its growing operations. The firm of Darling and Pearson, responsible for many of Canada’s major civic buildings including the main block of the University of Toronto, designed the structure. Work began in 1913 and the first phase opened in 1918 after delays caused by the First World War. The second expansion in 1923 and the final addition in 1931 brought the building to its present form. In June 1940, following the fall of France and the threat of German invasion of Britain, the Bank of England secretly shipped its gold reserves, the British Crown Jewels, and the securities of several European governments to Montreal; they were stored in the Sun Life sub-basement vaults until 1945. The building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1982.
Architecture & Design
Darling and Pearson designed the building in the Beaux-Arts tradition established at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which dominated North American institutional architecture from the 1890s through the 1930s. The exterior is clad entirely in Stanstead granite, quarried in the Eastern Townships of Quebec — a material choice that gives the building its distinctive white brilliance and distinguishes it from the darker masonry of neighboring buildings. The Corinthian colonnade wraps three sides of the building at the lower floors, its capitals carved by Italian stonecutters. The lobby is finished in marble with coffered ceilings and bronze elevator doors. The building’s mass is handled through a series of setbacks above the colonnade base that reduce its bulk toward the crown without breaking the classical ordonnance.
Cultural significance
The Sun Life Building was the largest structure in the British Empire at a time when the Empire encompassed a quarter of the earth’s land surface — a fact that carried enormous symbolic weight in 1931 Montreal, then the commercial capital of Canada and a city acutely conscious of its place in the imperial hierarchy. The wartime storage of the Crown Jewels added a layer of historical resonance that no subsequent building in Montreal has matched. For the anglophone Montreal establishment the building was a symbol of permanence; its construction in the heart of the city has taken on additional meaning in the context of Quebec’s political evolution since 1960.
Visiting today
The Sun Life Building lobby and ground-floor arcade are open to the public during business hours Monday through Friday. The building remains the headquarters of Sun Life Financial and is fully occupied. Dorchester Square, directly in front of the building, is a public park with seating and monuments and is accessible at all times. Heritage Montreal conducts occasional guided tours of the building as part of its annual Portes Ouvertes open-door weekend in September.
Getting there
The Sun Life Building is located at 1155 Metcalfe Street, facing Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal. The Peel and Bonaventure Metro stations on the Green Line are each a two-minute walk. The building is connected to the underground city (RESO) network via Bonaventure Station. By car, paid parking is available in several garages within one block on Peel and Stanley streets. From Montreal-Trudeau Airport, the 747 express bus reaches downtown in approximately forty minutes.
Sources & resources
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