LANTOW LOFTS

LANTOW LOFTS

Located in the Seventh Street business district and home to the Lantow Pharmacy for 100 years, this building was erected around 1895. The original twelve efficiency apartments on the second and third floors housed Swedish craftsmen immigrating to Rockford seeking jobs with area manufactures, while commercial businesses occupied the first floor.

The Lantow family sold the building in 1995 and in 2000 a local developer acquired the property in an effort to preserve an important piece of Rockford’s history. The re-development plan included turning the building into seven upscale lofts and commercial business space. By that time the building had gone years without proper maintenance and numerous masonry issues were present. In addition, part of the decorative cornice was missing as a result of the demolition of a previously attached building.

To start, numerous layers of paint that had been applied to the building’s exterior were stripped. All the damaged brick were replaced to match the original and tuck pointing was performed as necessary. We then fabricated new pieces in-house to restore the cornice to its original beautiful design. The rear of the building was completely reconfigured as part of the modernization and an attached garage was also erected.