Sun Life Building

The Sun Life Building is a historic 122m, 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 Canada at 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.ConstructionThe 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.