Constructed around a steel frame, the building is in Portland stone, with a granite basement and ground floor. Its architecture is described as "sumptious Neo-Baroque on the grandest scale". The building is in four storeys with a basement and an attic. Its long front on North John Street has eleven bays, with three bays on Dale Street. The ground floor and basement are rusticated. The windows are three-light sash windows with round heads. Those on the first floor have Gibbs surrounds and iron balconies. In the second and third floors the windows are recessed behind a Doric colonnade and entablature. In the attic are dormers. Some of these have architraves, keystones, and either segmental or triangular pediments; the others are flat-topped and contain casement windows. The entrance is on the second bay from the left in North John Street. The doorway has Doric columns and is round-headed. The first floor contains a round-headed window surrounded by a portico with a broken segmental pediment containing carved figures. Above this bay rises a three-stage campanile bearing an octagonal cupola with a gilded dome. On the Dale Street façade is a Venetian window. The second floor contains a frieze designed by C. J. Allen depicting themes relating to insurance. At the corners of this front are octagonal turrets with cupolas and finials. Between the turrets at attic level are three round-headed windows with rusticated Ionic pilasters, an entablature, and an iron balcony.