1912 – Union Trust Tower, Winnipeg, Manitoba

The Union Trust Tower occupies an unusually long and narrow site at the corner of Lombard Avenue and Main Street. The long and narrow shape of the property had been determined by the early settlers who laid out their lots in narrow strips extending from the Red River. It was built for the Union Trust Company, a Toronto-based financial firm which failed in 1941. The Great-West Life Assurance Company, which had been renting office space in the building, purchased it and changed its name to the Union Tower. As with many of the buildings in the area and of this time, the building has a steel frame which is clad in terracotta and marble. The window and door frames are bronze. In 1953, a part of the cornice had fallen because the metal reinforcing rods had been eaten away the cinder concrete. The parapet wall was then rebuilt, lined with stucco on the inside and covered with plaster on the outside. The main floor, finished in carved marble and brass with ornamental plasterwork and rich detailing, has survived in near perfect condition. The banking hall was a jeweller’s store until 2022.

The Union Trust Company’s building at Winnipeg, which is now being constructed by the Geo. A. Fuller Company, according to plans prepared by Mr. J. D. Atchison, will be 160 feet — or twelve storeys — high. The building is shaped somewhat like a wedge, the dimensions being 29 feet on the smallest end, 69 feet on the widest and 100 feet on the shortest side. Operations were started early in the present winter. The foundations are now completed and the cantilever girders are being installed. The foundations are built on concrete piers sunk to a depth of 65 feet to the rock. The construction is of steel and terra cotta. The floors are built on the arch tile system. The first two storeys are faced with marble and the material used in the remainder of the facings is mat-glazed terra cotta. The floors and the wainscoting in the corridors are of marble, while the ofiices on the main floor, which will be occupied by the Union Trust Company, will be finished throughout in marble. The elevator enclosure metal work in the stairways, as well as all outside metal work, will be of statuary bronze. The building will be lighted by electricity and will be heated by low pressure steam plant. The contract for the steel work was awarded to the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company.
Engineering and Contract Record, March 27 1912

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