Construction, rehabilitation and renovation work on The Lofts at Village Square is now complete!

This historic building was construction in 1916, on the corner of Meadow Ave. and Maple St. in South Side section of Scranton, and was the former home to the South Scranton silk mill factory and Giant Floor showroom.

Keystone Structural Group provided structural engineering services for rehabilitation / strengthening design work, elevator shaft inspections and design of a new lobby entrance addition to the building.

The term “they don’t build them like this anymore” rings true for this building. Over its 105 years of life, this building has seen many business and thousands of employees come and go. The structure has been used as a silk factory, trouser maker facility and a showroom for a flooring company. The building has been sitting vacant for years, until recently when purchased by the developer. The developer set out on creating high end apartments with a modern-industrial design concept accentuating the buildings original brickwork, architectural details and large arching windows.

Once the structure was gutted, KSG along with the project architect Joe DeScipio, AIA, thoroughly reviewed the existing building for deficiencies. The bones were good, as they say. After over a century of demanding usage and later life neglect, it was found that the buildings existing multi-wythe brick walls and timber framed floors and columns were in good condition. The 40,000 square foot structure only required structural repair to three deteriorated columns in the basement. The structure was temporarily shored and new columns were installed, strengthening the building for another century of service. Additional engineering included load analysis of the building, inspection of the old elevator shaft to determine its capabilities of supporting a new elevator, framing framing work, and the addition of a new double height entrance space.