Mutual Life Head Office
The head office of The Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada (now the head office of Sun Life Financial's Canadian operations) was completed in 1912. Designed by Canadian architect Frank Darling, of the Toronto firm Darling and Pearson, the impressive Renaissance Revival style building is ornamented with features such as the two-storey fluted, paired Ionic columns supporting a large segmental arch above the main doors, elaborate window surrounds, and a parapet with a balustrade. It is clad in light brown and yellow Roman brick and embellished with projecting pedimented bays and quoins. Many of the decorative details on the façade are made from imported English terra cotta. Situated within a Beaux Arts designed landscape, the building is a unique and iconic corporate pavilion. The monumental scale of the building and its rich ornamentation symbolize the importance and stability of Waterloo's first life insurance company and reflect the town's early 20th century prosperity and sense of civic pride.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Ontario Plaques. Full page here.