The Occidental Life Building is a historic building located at 305 Gold Avenue SW in downtown

Downtown Albuquerque

Downtown Albuquerque is the central business district of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is where a large number of the city's highrise buildings are located, as well as being the center of government and business for the region....

 Albuquerque, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is a unique example of U.S. Venetian Gothic

Venetian Gothic architecture

Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...

 Revival architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

, modeled after Doge's Palace in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. It was designed by Henry C. Trost of the El Paso

El Paso, Texas

El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...

 architectural firm Trost & Trost

Trost & Trost

Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucson, Arizona in 1899 and then on to El Paso in 1903...

, and built for the Occidental Life Insurance Company in 1917.

The building has street facades on the south and east sides, facing Gold Avenue and 3rd street, respectively. These are faced with bright white terra cotta

Terra cotta

Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 tile and decorated with elaborate floral patterns. A row of pointed arch

Arch

An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...

es runs along each facade below a row of quatrefoil windows. When originally built, the Occidental Life Building had an overhanging cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

and wide arcades between the arches and the building proper. After a 1934 fire gutted the building, the roofline was rebuilt to more closely resemble Doge's and the interior office space was expanded, removing the arcades. The interior was rebuilt as a two-story office building in 1981, keeping the terra cotta exterior intact.

External links

• City of Albuquerque Landmarks & Urban Conservation Commission: Occidental Life Insurance Building