Confederation Building National Historic Site

Landmark of prosperity

This ten-storey steel-framed office block is representative of early high-rise building construction technology in Winnipeg. Designed in the Chicago style of architecture by J. Wilson Gray of Toronto, it was erected in 1912 by the Carter-Halls-Aldinger Company of Winnipeg at a cost of $400,000. The building was owned and occupied by the Confederation Life Association for over 50 years. Its style, use, and placement within Winnipeg's commercial core make it an enduring symbol of the city's great economic and spatial growth in the early twentieth century.