Occidental Life Insurance Building
305 Gold SW, 1917, Henry C. Trost

Unique in the country (a similar building in Oklahoma City was demolished in 1972), the Occidental Life Building ranks with San Felipe de Neri Church and the KiMo Theatre as one of Albuquerque's best-known and best-loved monuments. The origin of its design is reputedly a suggestion prompted by a European tour by Occidental president A.B. McMillan. His architect, Henry C. Trost of El Paso, modeled the 1917 building on the Doge's Palace in Venice. It was one of the last works Trost designed.

Trost designed the building to have an overhanging cornice; the interior was finished in mahogany and Circassian walnut and there were nine-foot deep porches on the south and east. A fire in April 1933 destroyed the roof and interior. The 1934 rebuilding, designed by Albuquerque architect Miles Britelle, made the roof edge more closely resemble that on the original Doge's Palace and the office space was built out, removing the deep open arcade.

The building is sheathed in glazed white terra-cotta tile manufactured by the Denver Terra-Cotta Tile Company, the supplier for both the original construction and the rebuilding. Pointed Venetian Gothic arches range down the street façades capped by a row of quatrefoils; much of the tile is formed into interlocking floralpatterns. In 1981 a two-story office building was built within the original walls. Because of the changes to the interior, the terra cotta façade is the most important feature that must be preserved.