Work on the new headquarters of the Canada Life Assurance Company began in 1929 and it opened in 1931.

It remains one of the largest office buildings in Toronto with windows that can be opened by its occupants.

The building also houses the majority of the Civil operations of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for the Toronto region.

The information is updated four times every day by Environment Canada's Weather Centre at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The top of the beacon tower stands 321 feet (97.8 m) above University Avenue and, when completed on August 9, 1951, made the structure the third-highest in Toronto, after the Canadian Bank of Commerce Building and the Royal York Hotel.