Sun Fire And Life Insurance, 117, 119, 121 West George Street, Glasgow

The Sun Fire and Life Insurance building, located at 117, 119, and 121 West George Street in Glasgow, was designed by Wm Leiper and constructed between 1889 and 1894. This commercial building, styled in the Francois Ier manner, occupies a prominent corner site and features sculpture work by Birnie Rhind. It stands four storeys tall with a double attic and has a façade that consists of three main bays, including a wide, canted corner bay. The southern bays on Renfield Street house modern shops. The exterior is finished in polished red ashlar, and all windows are sash and case, set within architraves. Some windows include stone mullions and transoms, while others are arched, with multi-pane glazing.

The entrance is located at 42 Renfield Street, positioned at the canted angle and flanked by semi-engaged columns, featuring a fanlight and iron grille. The corner bay is accentuated with angle piers that are corbelled out on sculpted heads. The building showcases a variety of elaborately detailed windows from the first to the fifth floors, a bold sculpted frieze over the first floor, and heads set in wreaths on the second and fourth floors. A prominent cornice is located over the third floor, topped with a decorative dome and cupola.

The west elevation facing Renfield Street is equally ornate, with an advanced two-bay section rising through the second and third floors, adorned with pilasters and columns. It features an open scrolled pediment that supports a Michelangelesque figure group, and each floor has a solid parapet that is corbelled out on sculpted brackets. The fifth-floor windows are elaborately pedimented, some appearing as dormers, and the double attic features a pedimented gable in the southern bay.

On the east elevation facing West George Street, there are two unequal pedimented gables, with detailing that relates closely to the Renfield Street side. There is one decorated bay that returns to West George Lane.

Inside, the building boasts marble-lined walls and a columned chimneypiece designed by Rhind, featuring sculpted figure relief and an open scrolled, broken pediment. The interior includes carved door architraves with relief panels above, a timber-enclosed office with a carved clock, a panelled marble frieze, and a coffered ceiling.