This unique office tower has only a sliver of its façade along Main Street; the bulk of the structure extending down Lombard Avenue. This unusually shaped patch of land was all that remained after the construction of the neighbouring Canadian Bank of Commerce, but allowed the Union Trust Company the necessary space and a Main Street entrance.

Built between 1911 and 1913, the Union Trust Building is constructed of steel, concrete, and brick. John D. Atchison, a renowned local architect, designed the building in the popular skyscraper style of the time, Chicago School.

Borrowing Sullivanesque-style detailing, the Union Trust Building has a high emphasis on verticality expressed through the soaring pilasters that frame pairs of windows. The first two floors of the highly ornamented façade are clad in Kootenay marble while the upper floors utilize cream-coloured terracotta. Moulded terracotta panels form a variety of decorative elements from garlanded cartouches and rosette detailing around window openings. On the uppermost floors, pairs of arched windows are framed by bursts of decorative terracotta.

Great West Life purchased the building in 1941. The main floor became public space, rented by the Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia at varying points in the building’s history.