The National Bank of Canada’s 31,000-square-foot trading floor in Montreal, newly renovated by the local office of Architecture49, originally served as the banking hall of the Sun Life Assurance Company in its 1917 headquarters building. At the time, the Toronto architect Darling & Pearson had capped the space with an expansive skylight, and specified rose Tavernelle marble walls, midnight Syenite stone columns, and other grand materials to reflect the incoming sunshine and provide a counterpoint to it. Over the two decades following its opening, however, the historic building was expanded twice, cutting off the banking hall from a western exposure. Since then, too, a roof was constructed over the skylight and a dim, uneven lighting scheme had been inserted behind its glass. Opaque workplace dividers further blocked whatever light was available to the banking hall, which the National Bank began using for trading after it launched a securities division in 1987.

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