During my shooting of the various construction sites around the Bell Centre yesterday, I also managed to take a couple of shots of the Sun Life building.  I was particularly looking for some good juxtaposition angles given the number of modern office towers that are in close proximity to the fine art style building that was constructed in 1931.

Construction actually began in 1913 and was originally only 7 floors high. After 3 stages of construction the building finally reached its current 24 storey height and achieved the title (for a while) as being the largest building in Canada and the British Empire.

Sun Life building
ISO 100 – 170mm – f13 – 1/500 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sun Life building
ISO 100 – 155mm – f5.6 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

As with many flag staffs across the province, the flags on the Sun Life are currently flying at half-mast to honor the victims of the terrible July 6 Lac Megantic rail disaster.

Sun Life building
ISO 100 – 70mm – f6.3 – 1/640 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sun Life building
ISO 100 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Operation Fish

An interesting fact regarding the Sun Life building: During WWII the basement was used to store the gold reserves and negotiable foreign securities of the Bank of England. The highly secret transfer and storage was given the code name Operation Fish due to the gold being shipped in crates labelled fish. The foreign securities were sold on the New York Stock Exchange to help fund the British war effort.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

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