1920 – Union Bank, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The building was acquired by the Bank of Toronto after the absorption of the Union Bank by the Royal Bank of Canada in 1925. It become the B.C. head office of the bank in 1955, remaining as such for 29 years before closing its doors in 1984. 
Now part of the downtown campus of SFU and known as Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

“A handsome addition to Vancouver’s many fine buildings is the new Union Bank Building recently completed at the corner of Seymour and Hastings Streets. Standing as it does on one of the city’s busiest corners, its chaste lines and solid simplicity reflect the pride of both the officers of the institution and the citizens of Vancouver in its construction….

The building was designed by the firm of Somervell & Putnam architects, and provides every modern facility for conducting an up-to-the-minute banking business, and every comfort and convenience for the patrons. The Italian Renaissance style of architecture was adopted by the architects a- best befitting the dignity and character becoming a banking institution. Italian Renaissance motifs and the Riccardo and Strozzi palaces and other classic examples of the Renaissance were adopted in the exterior and interior ornamentation. The exterior of the building is executed in Haddington Island stone carved after models made by Mr. C. Marega, the local sculptor.”
Engineering and Contract Record, January 2, 1921

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