Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/422226
photography by neil burger Gold Coast Gr andeur a ChiCago auto baron shares his drive to restore his historiC division street greystone to its original glory. by judith nemes Steps from Lake Michigan, among a cluster of distinguished landmark row houses on East Division Street, one home jumps out from this Gold Coast block's predominantly redbrick structures. Done in pristine cream-colored brick and limestone, its exterior is punctuated by a tall glass-paneled front entrance with decorative iron grillwork on the door and an arched window above it—both re-creations meant to summon the home's glory days at the turn of the last century. "I fell in love with the outside of the home and the way it stood out from the rest of the block," says owner and local auto dealer Bob Loquercio of Bob Loquercio Auto Group. "The grand entrance always caught my eye, and I knew the last owners [Morton G. Neumann's family] had stored one of the world's largest private Picasso collections there at one time." From the street, one can see the 13-foot ceiling, ornate triple-crown mold- ings, and wall paneling that rings the front room of the Georgian-style row house. It exudes glamour and beckons much as it did more than 100 years Bob Loquercio's finished row house mixes modern accents with state-of-the-art restoration and was inspired by the urban elegance of late-1800s Gold Coast homes. continued on page 132 michiganavemag.com 131 haute property News, Stars, and trends in real estate