Downtown Hamilton, Ontario Canada. January 31, 2012.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm lens.

The building on the left is the John Sopinka Courthouse.
A bit of history: From Wikipedia-John Sopinka, QC (March 19, 1933 – November 24, 1997) was a Canadian lawyer and puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, the first Ukrainian-Canadian appointed to the high court.

Sopinka was born in Broderick, Saskatchewan and lived there until his family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. He completed secondary school at Saltfleet High School in Stoney Creek. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Toronto. While studying law, he also played professional football with the Toronto Argonauts (1955 to 1957, 29 games) and then the Montreal Alouettes (1957, 8 games) of the Canadian Football League. He was called to the bar of Ontario in 1960 and practiced law at Fasken & Calven before becoming a senior partner at Stikeman Elliott. He was designated Queen’s Counsel in 1975 and was also a lecturer at both the Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He has authored several books on the law, including a leading text on the law of evidence.

Sopinka was involved with several high profile cases including acting on behalf of Susan Nelles when she sued the government of Ontario and the Toronto police for malicious prosecution after the withdrawal of charges against her for murdering babies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. An inquiry into her case exonerated her and she won damages from the government for her ordeal. In 1986 he represented the Ukrainian Canadian Committee at the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals and argued against the deportation of suspected war criminals to their native lands, particularly the Soviet Union. He also served as counsel to the William Parker Inquiry that looked into the conduct of former cabinet minister Sinclair Stevens.

A noted trial lawyer, he was appointed directly to the Supreme Court of Canada on May 24, 1988 without ever having been a judge. At the time it was highly unusual for a Supreme Court of Canada appointee to have had no prior judicial experience. Following Sopinka’s death, the court’s next appointee, Ian Binnie, also came directly from private practice.

Sopinka died in 1997 of complications from a rare blood disease.

In 1999, a new courthouse in downtown Hamilton was named in his honour. The John Sopinka Courthouse has 18 courtrooms, accommodating Hamilton’s civil, criminal, and small claims courts. The government of Canada had purchased and renovated the Dominion Public Building for an estimated $64-million. The building was erected in 1935-36 and served as the main post office until 1991

The middle building is called the Pigott Building.
A brief history from Historic Hamilton:

Date Built: 1929

The first major property erected on the site of the Pigott Building was the (first) Canada Life Assurance Building erected in 1852. When Canada Life moved across James Street in 1927, the “Commerce Centre”, as it was known, was razed to make way for the Pigott Building, which opened in 1929.
This 18-storey structure, Hamilton’s first steel-skeleton skyscraper, was erected at a cost of $1,000,000. Combining Art-Deco and Gothic-Revival elements, the building incorporated glass from Belgium, window frames from England, and interior decoration in marble, tile, and murals painted by church decorators of events related to building of the skyscraper. In true “Gotham”-style, there were, atop the roof, rotating searchlights that revolved every 30 seconds.
The building remained a thriving commercial office development until the 1970’s, when the downtown economy began to wane. During the next decade the skyscraper was sold and resold several times for a variety of projects, but all fell through. Fortunately, it was designated as being of heritage interest in 1984. Unfortunately, by that time the stained glass windows, the brass doors, and much of the fancy woodwork had disappeared. Fortunately, the windows were recovered from a local antique shop at a cost of $12,000, and re-installed.

The building on the right is the Landed Banking and Loan Company.
A brief history:
Date Built: 1908

The Landed Banking and Loan Company Building erected in 1908 was designed by local architect Charles Mills, as a copy of New York City’s Knickerbocker Trust and Safe Deposit Bank.
In the Classical Revival style, with its soaring Corinthian columns, the edifice was designed purposely to look like an ancient Greek temple — in this case a “temple dedicated to commerce”. Historically, this structure, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, is now the oldest bank building still standing in the city’s original financial district on James Street South.