Everything Old Is New Again

By Mark Loehrke
Appears in the February 2023 issue.

Aurora recently celebrated the redevelopment of two historic downtown buildings. Constructed in 1905, the six-story Terminal Building at 2 North Broadway Street was at the time the tallest building in Aurora and one of the tallest in Illinois outside of Chicago. With its upper floors empty since the mid-’60s and its street-level commercial space vacant since 2003, this Second Renaissance Revival structure now has been reimagined as Lofts on Broadway, featuring 20 apartments on the upper levels and retail space on the ground floor. Meanwhile, a few blocks away, the Hobbs Building (above) at 2 North River Street, a Romanesque Revival built in 1862, is seeing new mixed-use life after decades of inactivity, boasting 31 new apartments and retail space on the ground floor—while also reclaiming its iconic copper onion dome.

Photo courtesy of The Sheena Baker Group