Standard Life, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92 Gordon Street, Glasgow

Standard Life, located at 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, and 92 Gordon Street in Glasgow, is a five-storey and attic block of offices and shops, designed by James Thomson in 1889, with the top storeys completed by J B and W A Thomson in 1909. The building features a free classical style, with eight unequal bays and a polished red ashlar façade, including channelled angles at the east and southwest corners. The ground floor has been altered, but it retains sash and case windows with plate glass.

On the Gordon Street elevation, there is a dentil cornice at the ground floor. The outer bays are shallowly canted at the first floor, with console corniced windows and a segmental pediment over the central light at the first floor, supported by Ionic pilaster mullions above. The central bays have windows with console corniced architraves at the first floor, along with a cill band above. A sculpted frieze and dentil band adorn the second floor cornice. The third and fourth floors are linked by slender giant Corinthian columns, with coupled columns in the central bays and granite-shafted columns in the outer bays. The western pediment features a sculpted tympanum, while the eastern side is corniced. The roof includes dormers with shaped pediments and finials in the eastern bay, as well as a wide pedimented dormer in the center, all topped by a hipped pavilion roof with brattishing on the west side.

The Hope Street elevation mirrors the first seven bays of the Gordon Street elevation, with the first bay from the south resembling the Gordon Street eastern pavilion but without canted lower floors. At the roof level, there are central banded rusticated piers flanking a sculpted crouching Atlas holding a globe. The steeply hipped roof features brattishing over the seventh bay. The next six bays from the south are raised, maintaining similar detailing, with segmentally pedimented outer and central bays and a canted bay from the first to the second floor in the center. The outer and central bays have pilastered entries, with the entry at No. 96 Hope Street being consoled and featuring sculpted friezes. A tall, elaborate sculpted central dormer is flanked by raised piers and a pedimented panel, breaking through the balustraded parapet. The roof is hipped with altered dormers, including a round-headed dormer with a finial in the northern bay, all covered by a slate roof.

The detailing continues for two bays into Renfield Lane.